Dive Brief:
- Pharma manufacturers in North Carolina largely avoided catastrophic damage from the high winds and flooding brought by Hurricane Florence's landfall just south of Wrightsville Beach last week.
- Though the impact on the towns and communities in the storm's path has been severe, most drugmaker production sites in the state are already restarting operations or cleaning up damage. The Food and Drug Administration, which kept a close eye on the hurricane, hasn't reported any major issues.
- The low impact seen by pharmaceutical firms from Florence contrasts with the major disruption to operations in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Shutdowns there led to knock-on effects throughout the drug supply chain in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
As Hurricane Florence approached the Carolinas, pharma firms took precautions to weather any storm-related disruption. Pfizer, for example, temporarily suspended operations at its Hospira sterile injectables manufacturing facility in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
It appears facilities of major drugmakers weathered the storm well.
Operations at Pfizer's Rocky Mount and Wilson, North Carolina sites had restarted by Monday, Sept. 17, Steven Danehy, a Pfizer spokesperson reported to BioPharma Dive.
"Both facilities are operational, and had minimal impact," Danehy said.
The same was true for Novo Nordisk, which has a major presence in Clayton, North Carolina. "Our facilities are relatively unscathed, and our manufacturing plant remains open making diabetes medicines," said Ken Inchausti, director of corporate communications for the Danish drugmaker.
Novartis, which also has operations in Wilson, said its site was up and running as well.
The Food and Drug Administration actively monitored for supply disruptions during the storm and reported little evidence of problems.
To date, there’s no evidence that they’ll be shortages of any critical medical product arising from the current storm. #FDA is tracking over 7,000 FDA-regulated facilities, which includes nearly 3,000 medical product firms, in the areas being impacted by Hurricane Florence.
— Scott Gottlieb, M.D. (@SGottliebFDA) September 16, 2018
While Florence weakened to a Category 1 hurricane by landfall, the storm caused severe flooding. The city of Wilmington, for example, became almost completely cut off after roads flooded.
Merck & Co. has facilities that were at risk of flooding, but communications director Pamela Eisele said cleanup had begun.
"Operations at our facilities in Wilson, North Carolina and Durham, North Carolina have started cleanup from the storm," she said. "Both facilities are in areas which are currently affected by flash flooding; however, at this time, no damage is expected to the facilities. Neither facility is yet operational."
Another Merck facility in Elkton, Virginia remained operational, Eisele said.
Monitoring will likely continue for some time as the region continues to recover.
Unfortunately, flooding from #HurricaneFlorence has not ended in many places in the Carolinas. The #FDA will continue to closely monitor flooding for any potential impacts to FDA-regulated facilities and continue to provide technical assistance to state and local partners. https://t.co/0jRK1MjE83
— Scott Gottlieb, M.D. (@SGottliebFDA) September 19, 2018