Exploring the Impact of Natural Disasters After Pfizer Plant Damaged
24 Jul 2023
Drug Approval
Pictured: Pfizer’s Rocky Mount facility post-July 2023 tornado/Pfizer
An EF-3 tornado hit a Pfizer manufacturing plant in Rocky Mount, NC, on Wednesday, and while the FDA announced on Friday that there shouldn't be “any immediate significant impacts on supply,” experts predict the disaster could lead to drug shortages.
It wouldn’t be the first time that natural disasters have disrupted pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution. In 2017, about half of U.S. hospitals experienced saline shortages after Hurricane Maria shut down Baxter International facilities in Puerto Rico. Five years earlier, across the northern border, a fire at a Sandoz Canada plant worsened existing cancer drug shortages. Floods have previously shut down manufacturing plants in Thailand and India. And the 2011 Japan earthquake damaged multiple pharmaceutical facilities.
Rocky Mount officials reported that while production buildings were unaffected, the storage and distribution buildings at the Pfizer plant were destroyed. An estimated 50,000 pallets of medicine were damaged. The damaged buildings also stored raw materials and packaging supplies. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said at a Friday press conference that the damaged medications were awaiting quality testing.
Financial services company Morgan Stanley said Thursday that they anticipate some drug shortages as a result of the storm but minimal financial impact to Pfizer. Similarly, Erin Fox, a researcher at the University of Utah who studies drug shortages, told news outlets that the loss of the facility could compound existing shortages.
It could be at least a week before the impact of the tornado is fully known, however, said Ryan Maves, a physician and professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine who researches disaster planning. That’s because health systems have taken steps to reduce the impact of shortages in the wake of the pandemic, such as stockpiling common medications and identifying alternative treatments.
“Once stockpiles dwindle and the impact of the loss of that inventory and new production becomes apparent, then we’ll know,” Maves told BioSpace. “I suspect that at the hospital level, three months from now, production will have ramped up to the point to where shortages won’t be immediately apparent to people working in a hospital.”
Assessing the Tornado’s Impact
Pfizer’s Rocky Mount facility produces nearly 25% of Pfizer’s injectable products, including sedatives, anti-infectives and micronutrients. Bourla said Friday that the site produces 8% of injectables used at U.S. hospitals. The company is still waiting to determine which products might have been lost, as a limited number of people can access the facility in its current state, Pfizer said in an emailed statement Thursday.
This would not be the first time Pfizer has had issues with its injectable supply. In 2020, the company finally managed to stock 90% of its injectable portfolio after years of manufacturing issues.
A product availability report from July 18, the day before the storm, shows that several Pfizer injectables already had limited or depleted supplies. That report is not specific to Rocky Mount, but it shows what Pfizer already has or lacks. Depleted products include hypertonic saline, respiratory medications such as aminophylline and treatments for opioid users like buprenorphine and naloxone.
After the saline shortages in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the FDA approved Baxter and other manufacturers to import products from other countries to address the issue. It’s unclear if a similar action is needed in this situation. Pfizer is exploring alternative manufacturing sites in the U.S. and abroad, the company said Friday.
Pfizer’s previous injectable shortage led it to develop a supply shortage plan. In an FAQ section on its website for hospitals, Pfizer stated that its long-term plan for avoiding future shortages included investing in compliance and manufacturing capabilities, increasing safety stock levels of “medically necessary and other key products,” and focusing on organizational preparedness.
Pfizer media relations did not answer emailed questions about how this plan might come into play at the Rocky Mount facility or about general disaster planning.
Better Preparing for Future Disasters
Pharmaceutical companies have improved their disaster preparedness in the wake of events like these. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina spurred distributors like McKesson and Cardinal Health to improve their communication systems and set up back-up distribution centers. Likewise, a 2018 annual review noted that Pfizer improved its communication and power systems after Hurricane Maria and developed “ready-to-implement recovery strategies.”
Maves said that disaster response plans should be an “all-hazards approach.” When he worked at a San Diego hospital, the facility planned for hazards ranging from wildfires to a plane crashing into the building, with the more common hazards being prioritized.
Pfizer’s 2018 review said that the company had developed a “natural event risk methodology,” which ranked the most significant natural events against each of Pfizer’s locations.
“Tornadoes are a thing that happen in Rocky Mount,” Maves said. “I would anticipate that [Pfizer’s] plans account for that possibility. Whether their plan is adequate, I guess we’re about to find out.”
Nadia Bey is a freelance reporter in North Carolina. She can be reached at beynadiaa@gmail.com.
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