Baxter has announced that, as of October 14, 1,000 employees have returned to work at their North Cove manufacturing site following Hurricane Helene’s impact.
In addition to the 1,000 employees, an additional 1,000 remediation contractors are on site to “aid in the cleanup and recovery.” Right now, current priorities are “completing deep cleaning of the facility, including floors and equipment, as well as assessing the status of all equipment and production lines.” The goal is to “begin restarting North Cove production in phases by the end of this year.”
Baxter has also activated seven plants across their “global network” to help increase inventory of IV fluids and peritoneal dialysis (PD) solutions. FDA has authorized temporary importation “for five Baxter manufacturing facilities in Canada, China (two sites), Ireland and the UK. Temporary importation authorization across these sites includes 19 IV solution and dialysis product codes.”
U.S. allocation levels of Baxter’s highest demand IV fluids for direct customers has increased “from 40% to 60%, and for distributors from 10% to 60%. [They] also increased high concentration dextrose and sterile water for injection allocations and expect to be in a position to make additional increases for certain product codes by early November.”
Active deliveries are being conducted to “current peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients.” Baxter has also requested “that healthcare professionals limit new PD patient starts to pediatric patients (those under 18 years old) and other medically necessary patient exceptions may be considered.”
