Tornado Destroys Pfizer North Carolina Plant Sterile Solutions Warehouse

Editor's note: This article has been corrected regarding the percentage of sterile injectables produced by the Rocky Mount facility used by hospitals in the U.S.

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) (New York, New York) 1.4 million-square-foot Rocky Mount, North Carolina, facility was struck on Wednesday by an EF-3 tornado, with winds of 136-165 miles per hour.

The warehouse area, known as the "High Rise" on the southeast side of the complex, took the brunt of the storm and incurred catastrophic damage. It is estimated that 50,000 pallets of product stored in the area were lost.

The destruction will likely affect the supply of many much-needed drugs in the U.S.

According to CNBC, the plant supplies nearly 8% of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals, including anesthesia, analgesia, therapeutics, anti-infectives and neuromuscular blockers. The facility manufactures about 25% of Pfizer's sterile injectables

The tornado caused no major injuries, and facility staff and on-site contractors were assessing the damage. Production will be delayed because of the storage issues and a recovery plan and rebuild will be fast-tracked. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Pharmaceuticals & Biotech project and plant databases can click here to view the rebuild project report and click here for the related plant profile.

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