Abbott, the baby dairy company whose plant closures led to shortages, resumes production

baby milk maker Abbott Nutrition On Saturday, it said it was resuming production at its Michigan plant after meeting Food and Drug Administration requirements.

The plant was closed in February after US Food and Drug Administration inspectors began investigating four cases of bacterial infections in infants who fed formula from the plant. as such Baby Milk Supplies Dried nationwide and under pressure from the White House, Abbott entered into a approval decree with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that outlined the steps needed to resume production at the facility.

Abbott said it will begin production of EleCare and other specialty formulations and metabolites, with initial product launches expected to begin on June 20. But production of Similac and other formulas is still on hold, Abbott said.

Abbott said it will ramp up production as quickly as possible while meeting all requirements.

But reopening the factory is not an immediate solution to the shortage. Since specialty and metabolic formulas are initially prioritized, they will be distributed through healthcare providers – not stores.

Roughly 74% of store shelves are empty, and 10 states have 90% of infant formula, according to the Bloomberg.

As the supply chain lags amid the COVID and . crisis war in ukraine Contributing to the shortages, product shortages reached crisis levels in February, and the closure of the Abbott plant caused it to reach crisis levels in May. President Joe Biden announced On May 18, it will invoke the Defense Production Act to produce more formulas, and it will be an over-the-fly formula as part of “Operation Fly.”

Abbott was noticeably absent from A The White House event earlier this week on the lack of infant formula. They knew “from the start, this is going to be a very serious event,” said Robert Cleveland, senior vice president at Reckitt Baby Dairy.

Biden said at that event that he was informed of the shortage in April.