Pfizer plant damaged in tornado, potentially worsening U.S. drug shortage

A Pfizer manufacturing facility, responsible for making nearly 25% of the company’s sterile injectable medicines used at U.S. hospitals, sustained heavy damage from a tornado in North Carolina, potentially worsening an already deep drug shortage.

The continuing trend of severe weather has added to another problem in the U.S.— damage from an unusually strong tornado may create nationwide drug shortages after a large Pfizer plant in North Carolina was nearly destroyed by the storm.

Although all staff were safe and accounted for, Pfizer’s Rocky Mount plant saw serious damage, with some sections nearly flattened. A report in FiercePharma quoted Pfizer as saying the plant manufactures one-quarter of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals. The drug manufacturer said that its facility has 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space and is one of the largest sterile injectable facilities in the world. The plant had recently been expanded and also manufactures plastic vials, syringes, flexible containers, and semi-rigid bottles.