Baxter International, a saline bag supplier, issued an update Wednesday to customers on its efforts to mitigate shortages of saline products as the U.S. grapples with a severe flu season that is dramatically increasing demand, reports Reuters.
Here are five things to know.
1. Hospitals across the nation are still experiencing shortages of small saline bags, which are used to deliver drugs intravenously, due to prolonged power disruptions at two of Baxter's manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The Puerto Rico plants were the U.S. market's main supplier of saline-bag solutions.
2. As a result of the small saline bag shortage, many hospitals turned to large saline IV bags to deliver medicines to patients, upping the demand. Now, as the nation faces a severe flu season, the demand for the larger volume bags that hydrate flu patients has further increased.
3. In October and November 2017, Baxter received FDA approval to import saline products from some of its overseas plants, including Ireland, Australia and Canada. On Jan. 15, the company was also granted regulatory discretion for the temporary importation of small saline bags from its plant in Brazil. Now, to help meet demand, Baxter is bringing additional large-volume saline bags to the U.S. market through a recent perminant approval from the FDA for large-volume products from one of its plants in Mexico. This is a move expected to improve hospital shortages.
4. Christi Guess, senior director of contract services for Vizient, which negotiated with medical companies on behalf of hospitals, told Reuters that with the addition of products from the Mexico plant, clients can order 100 percent of what they historically ordered in the past.
5. All of Baxter's manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico have been reconnected to the commercial power grid. Supply shortages of the small bags are expected to improve.