(Washington) The American group Abbott has reached an agreement with the courts to restart its production of baby milk at its Michigan site, in order to reduce the shortage of this vital product for infants, announced the group and the American ministry of Justice on Monday.
Posted at 6:34 p.m.
The United States is experiencing a very rare baby milk shortage situation that has left millions of parents worried.
Initially caused by supply chain problems and a lack of labor due to the pandemic, the shortage was made worse when in February a factory of the manufacturer Abbott in Michigan closed, after a recall of products suspected of having caused the death of two babies.
The US Drug Administration (FDA) cleared the milk, but found “483 irregularities” with the factory, Abbott said on Friday, stressing that it “immediately began implementing corrective actions”.
The Justice Department and Abbott said in a separate statement that the deal still needs to be cleared by a judge.
But the manufacturer, one of the major players in the baby milk market, expects to reopen its Michigan plant within two weeks. He repeated that it would then take “6 to 8 weeks before the products are available on the shelves”.
Until then, it will continue to import baby milk from its factory in Ireland to try to ease shortages in the United States.
“We know that millions of parents and caregivers depend on us and we are deeply sorry that our voluntary recall has worsened the nationwide shortage of breast milk,” the group responded Monday.
“We will work hard to regain the trust that mums, dads and caregivers have placed in our powders for over 50 years,” he added.
In a separate statement, FDA official Robert Califf said the agreement means Abbott “has agreed to address certain issues identified by the agency at its manufacturing facility.”
He added that his services were reviewing the available supply of manufacturers in the United States and around the world “to determine if a reallocation of their distribution was possible to get the right product to the right place at the right time. “.
Datasembly, a data provider, revealed on May 10 that the out-of-stock rate of infant milk formula had reached 43% by the end of last week. It then exceeded 50% in some regions of the country.
The White House is in continuous communication with the four main manufacturers Reckitt, Abbott, Nestlé/Gerber and Perrigo, to identify obstacles to transport, logistics and suppliers to increase production. […] and ensuring products get to retailers faster, an official said.
The Biden administration is also in “ongoing communication with Target, Amazon, Walmart […] in order to identify regions of the country that could present a critical supply risk,” according to the same source.