Dozens of drugs made by Pfizer Inc. may be more difficult for hospitals to purchase because they were manufactured at the company’s North Carolina plant that was damaged by a tornado last week.
Sixty-five different formats and formulations of products including the anesthetic lidocaine; the painkiller morphine; and other basic hospital medicines “may experience continued or new supply disruptions in the near-term,” New York-based Pfizer said Friday in an email to customers. The email lists several different dosages or formulations of at least 32 drugs, plus two sizes of empty glass vials. Forty-six of the products were already in short supply as of Sunday, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.
The tornado on Wednesday damaged Pfizer’s manufacturing plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, which makes about 8% of all injectable drugs used in US hospitals.
The pharmaceutical giant’s hefty market share raised concerns that record-high drug shortages may worsen. Still, hospitals likely won’t feel any immediate effect because products are already on their shelves, as well as at wholesalers, and distribution centers, said Erin Fox, who runs the University of Utah’s drug information service, which tracks shortages. And since many of these drugs are in shortage now, hospitals have plans in place for how to adapt.
The factory’s damage was contained largely to its warehouse, and production areas appeared unharmed, Pfizer said Friday. This also eased concerns. The FDA said that the agency has asked other manufacturers to increase production and that the agency wasn’t anticipating “immediate significant impacts on supply.”
Nine-Year High
Pfizer’s notice informs customers about the company’s products, and the FDA’s announcement applies to the market as a whole, a Pfizer spokesperson said Sunday.
The full range of products made at the facility remains unclear. The FDA said Friday that laws prevent the agency from providing a “complete list.” Pfizer told customers its plant manufactures more than the 65 products it disclosed. The U.S. Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit that sets medicine standards, has said the plant makes more than 150 medicines.
Shortages in the US are at a nine-year high, with low stocks of some 309 products including cancer drugs, antibiotics, and ADHD medicines, according to the Utah service.
Drug shortages have afflicted the US health care system for decades and have different causes. Among them: generic drugs are cheap and don’t bring in much profit, discouraging drug-makers from investing in robust manufacturing.
Lawmakers and a White House task force have been mulling policy solutions.
Read more: Secret White House Team Tackles Drug Shortages, Quality Woes
Some important Pfizer medicines in short supply aren’t made at the plant, including chemotherapy drugs and penicillin G benzathine, according to the email, which is used to treat syphilis.