Hospital drug buyers are scrambling to figure out how Hurricane damage At a major Pfizer manufacturing facility, it will affect drug availability across the country at a time of record drug shortages.
Healthcare providers Premier Inc. and Vizient Inc. They are working with other drugmakers to see who can ramp up production. Vizient encourages drug distributors to manage their inventory carefully. Before the Rocky Mount, North Carolina, plant of Pfizer was hit by a hurricane on Wednesday, there were already shortages of hundreds of medications across the country, including cancer drugs, antibiotics, and treatments for ADHD.
The extent of the damage to the Pfizer plant is unclear, and the US government is working with the pharmaceutical giant to assess the situation. Robert Califf, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, spoke with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla Thursday afternoon to “understand the extent of the harm” and the “potential impact on drug supplies,” Califf said. he said on Twitter. He did not elaborate.
Somi Saha, senior deputy prime minister for government affairs, said the FDA has also been in touch with other drug manufacturers to see how they can help. Mittal Sutaria, Vizient’s vice president of pharmacy contract services and programs, said agency personnel were at the site, assessing the damage.
A White House spokesperson said the FDA is “monitoring the situation closely as it develops and working with the company to understand the extent of the damage and any potential impact on the country’s drug supply.”
IV drugs
Pfizer’s plant in North Carolina produces injectable drugs such as anesthetics, pain relievers and anti-infective drugs for US hospitals. It also sends medicines to other countries, shipping more than 200 million units annually, according to the company website. The plant produces approximately 25% of Pfizer’s sterile syringes in the United States. These types of medications are often given intravenously and are known as intravenous medications.
Pfizer said it was assessing the situation to determine the impact on production, without providing further information. No employee was injured.
It is not publicly known which medicines Pfizer manufactures at the facility. Neither Pfizer nor the Food and Drug Administration provided a list when asked. Pharmaceutical companies are not required to publicly disclose the exact drugs they manufacture in any given facility, which makes it difficult for hospitals or other medical providers to gauge the impact of manufacturing disruptions.
Pfizer is the largest maker of injectable generic drugs in the United States, according to IQVIA, which tracks sales data. Pfizer products accounted for 19% of the country’s supply for the first five months of this year. Fresenius SE, based in Germany, and Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc, based in London, are the second and third largest suppliers, respectively.
The disaster struck as the US was facing a 9-year high of drug shortages — 309 drugs are in short supply, including 177 sterile syringes, according to Erin Fox, who directs the Drug Information Service at the University of Utah.
Lack of transparency
Experts were concerned about how the damage to the Pfizer plant might affect drug availability, but said it was too soon to know given the uncertainty about the damage and the products being made at the facility.
“This is exactly why we need better transparency about where our pharmaceutical products are made,” he said Stephen Schundelmeiera professor at the University of Minnesota who studies the pharmaceutical industry.
Essential medicines incl Cancer drugsAnd AntibioticsAnd ADHD treatments Pharmacies and hospitals across the US have run out of stock over the past year, putting people’s lives at risk. legislators and the White House concerned, but has not enacted any policy changes recently.
Natural disasters have caused drug shortages in the past. when Hurricane Maria It hit Puerto Rico in 2017, knocking out power at factories that make saline solutions, causing widespread problems for hospitals.