The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indicated it didn’t expect major shortages in drug manufacturing after a tornado hit a Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday.
“We do not expect there to be any immediate significant impacts on supply given the products are currently at hospitals and in the distribution system,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said Friday.
He added that the FDA’s initial analysis identified fewer than 10 drugs for which Pfizer’s North Carolina plant is the sole source for the U.S. market.
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer said Friday that most of the damage from the tornado was inflicted on the storage and not the manufacturing area of the plant.
“Pfizer is also exploring alternative manufacturing locations for production across our significant manufacturing presence in the U.S. and internationally and across the company’s partner network. After an initial assessment, there does not appear to be any major damage to the medicine production areas.”
The Rocky Mount plant, which spans 1.4 million square feet, is responsible for producing some 25 percent of all of Pfizer’s sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals—or nearly 8 percent of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals. This includes anesthesia, analgesia, therapeutics, anti-infectives, and neuromuscular blockers.
The plant does not make or store Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, or the Comirnaty and Paxlovid treatments.
Mr. Califf said that in the coming days, the FDA will complete a more extensive evaluation of the products that might be affected and the current domestic supply of those medications. “Many weeks’ worth” of the destroyed drugs should be available in Pfizer’s other warehouses, he added.