After Hurricane Helene sent flooding through Baxter’s North Cove manufacturing site in Marion, N.C. — which supplied 60% of the nation’s IV supply — the drugmaker temporarily closed the plant. On Oct. 31, Baxter restarted its highest-throughput manufacturing line, which accounts for 25% of the site’s total production.
Health systems are rationing supply and some hospitals are pausing surgeries as the U.S. imports products from Europe and China. IV fluids from China have different labels and instructions, Bloomberg reported, so those imports are going to dialysis centers instead of the hospital supply chain.
Mike Schiller, executive director of the AHA’s Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management, told Bloomberg his organization is seeing gray market manufacturers offering “significantly higher” prices for IV fluids compared to what hospitals typically pay.
By the first week of December, the U.S. will have “a more stabilized environment where hospitals will begin to see a more consistent delivery of the allocations that Baxter has been discussing,” Mr. Schiller said.
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