Baxter’s Asheville site now fully operational after damage from Helene
A primary IV solutions and drugs manufacturing facility near Asheville, North Carolina, has finally recovered from major damage caused by Hurricane Helene. After nearly six months, Baxter said the site has “now returned to pre-hurricane production levels.”
In a Feb. 17 announcement, the company noted that all 10 of its production lines were fully operational as of Jan. 28, after which It took only a couple of weeks for manufacturing to catch up to previous levels.
Baxter has released regular updates since devastation from Helene flooded the site and washed away the only bridge into the area in late September, leading to the closure of the site. The downtime led to shortages of IV solutions nationwide, with imports and expanded production from competitors unable to fully fill in the gap.
Baxter’s facility in North Cove is responsible for producing 60% of IV bags used by U.S. hospitals and providers.
“We continue to make strong progress at North Cove as we advance site-wide recovery and inventory replenishment,” the company said in its statement.
“This is a critical milestone in our recovery as we continue to work to replenish inventory and support our customers’ and patients’ needs. While we continue to increase allocation levels across key impacted product groups, allocations remain necessary, and we will continue to provide related updates for our customers directly,” it added.
Despite the good news, Baxter said it expects one final update upon the ”removal of allocations for key product groups,” which the company said is its final “key milestone” for recovery. For now, staff in North Cove are focused on filling inventory backlogs and increasing production output further.
While recovery may seem slow, estimates based on the damage projected a worse outcome. In late October, Baxter announced rebuilding was ahead of schedule, with partial manufacturing resuming and a temporary bridge in place to move product and supplies. It began shipping IV solutions from North Cove to customers again in November.
“This achievement was made possible by the dedication and resilience of the North Cove and broader Baxter teams, working in coordination with [the] U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” the company added.
A full list of Baxter’s Hurricane Helene recovery announcements can be found here.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.