Tornado damage may hit drug supply

Pfizer plant in North Carolina bigger than 24 football fields

The fallout from a Pfizer factory damaged by a tornado could put even more pressure on alreadystrained drug supplies at U.S. hospitals, experts say.

Wednesday’s tornado touched down near Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and ripped up the roof of a Pfizer factory that makes nearly 25% of Pfizer’s sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, according to the drugmaker.

Pfizer said all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for, and no serious injuries were reported. The drugmaker is still assessing damage.

The North Carolina plant produces drugs that are injected or through an IV.

The plant makes drugs for anesthesia, medicines that treat infections and drugs needed for surgeries. The latter are used in surgeries or intensive care units for patients who are placed on ventilators, said Mike Ganio, who studies drug shortages at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Pfizer bought the eastern North Carolina factory in 2015 as part of its acquisition of the drugmaker Hospira.

There is more than 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space, or the equivalent of more than 24 football fields, and 22 packaging lines. Pfizer says well over 2,000 people work there.

It will likely lead to some long-term shortages while Pfizer shifts production to other locations or rebuilds, said Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health.

“If Pfizer falls out, it makes it that much harder for other companies to make up the difference,” Fox said.

The specifics of which drugs might be involved in a shortage and how long that shortage will go aren’t clear.

“Anyone who is aware of this event is basically holding their collective breath at this point, hoping for the best and waiting for news,” Ganio said.

The company hasn’t said what happens next. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Thursday on Twitter that the company was “working urgently to determine the best way to get back online as quickly as possible, while ensuring the safety of our people.”