Most of the damage caused by a tornado that swept through eastern North Carolina on Wednesday and hit a Pfizer pharmaceutical plant primarily affected its storage facility, rather than its medicine production areas, according to the company’s statement on Friday.
The pharmaceutical company’s ability to salvage production equipment and other essential materials may help mitigate the potential impact of the tornado on an already strained healthcare system in the United States, which is currently grappling with drug shortages.
“We do not anticipate any immediate significant supply impacts as the products are currently at hospitals and in the distribution system,” said U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf on Friday.
A powerful EF3 tornado touched down near Rocky Mount on Wednesday, causing severe damage to a Pfizer factory responsible for producing nearly 25% of the company’s sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, according to Pfizer.
Pfizer stated on Friday that most of the damage occurred in a warehouse housing raw materials, packaging supplies, and finished medicines awaiting release. The initial inspection by the company revealed no major damage to the medicine manufacturing areas, and all 3,200 local employees are safe and accounted for.
Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla stated that the company is rushing products to nearby sites for storage and identifying sources to rapidly replace the lost raw materials. Pfizer is also exploring alternative manufacturing locations across its U.S. network to fill production gaps while the North Carolina site undergoes repairs.
According to the FDA, fewer than 10 drugs for the U.S. market rely solely on Pfizer’s North Carolina plant. The Rocky Mount plant produces anesthesia and other essential drugs for surgeries, but it does not manufacture or store Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine or the Comirnaty and Paxlovid treatments. Medications produced at the facility account for nearly 8% of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals, as stated on Pfizer’s website.
The FDA stated that it will conduct a more extensive evaluation in the coming days to determine the potential impact on affected products and the current domestic supply of those medications. Califf added that there should be “many weeks’ worth” of the destroyed drugs available in Pfizer’s other warehouses.
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