Experts warned of a possible shortage of medicine after a tornado hit North Carolina and caused significant damage to the Pfizer pharmaceutical plant.
The plant, which is located in Rocky Mount, stores raw materials, packaging supplies, and finished medications awaiting release to hospitals across the United States.
This facility also produced around 150 medicines, such as fentanyl and morphine for pain treatment and anesthetics for surgery, which are widely used in hospitals.
"I've got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind," Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone told CBS News.
Read Also: US Weather Forecast: Powerful Tornado Hits North Carolina; Northeast Expects More Rain
Disruption of supply
According to Reuters, Pfizer sent a letter to its hospital customer saying that around 64 different formulations or dosages of more than 30 drugs produced at the damaged plant may "experience continued or new supply disruption."
As stated on their company website, the Rocky Mount facility is one of the world's largest drug facilities and is responsible for generating roughly 25% of Pfizer's sterile injectable pharmaceuticals used in U.S. hospitals.
According to the United States Pharmacopeia, a body that studies medication supply chains, half of the products manufactured at the plant are on the FDA's essential medicine list.
The pharmaceutical company has set limits on how much of certain drugs its consumers can purchase.
Erin Fox, a senior pharmacy director at the University of Utah Health, predicts that the damages caused by the tornado will likely lead to a long-term medicine shortage while "Pfizer works to either move production to other sites or rebuild."
Associate Scientist Mariana Socal of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health stressed that the drug shortage will not be felt immediately, noting that the hospital can access medicines that have already been manufactured and delivered.
"In a matter of weeks or months the supply can just be depleted if other plants or manufacturers can't expand their production," Socal told the Wall Street Journal.
Pfizer said they are working to fully restore the function of the facility, noting its crucial role in the U.S. healthcare system.
"After an initial assessment, there does not appear to be any major damage to the medicine production areas," they added.
Other damages of the tornado
The National Weather Service said the damage in North Carolina was consistent with an EF3 tornado with wind speeds of up to 150 mph.
According to WRAL News, a total of 90 residences and buildings were either damaged or destroyed.
The tornado also injured at least 16 individuals, two of whom are in critical condition.
In the aerial inspection conducted by Sky 5 in Nash County after the storm passed, trees and crops were seen devastated in the tornado's path.
The authorities added that some neighborhoods were so badly damaged that first responders were unable to reach them.
It is the second EF-3 tornado to hit North Carolina in the month of July.
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