Parents have been struggling to feed their babies as the
national baby formula shortage continues and shelves across the country
remain empty last week, a military transport plane with
more thanÂŁ70,000 of formula arrived from Switzerland? But
that was just a drop in the bucket to solve
the national crisis. Joining me now is peter pits
former FDA associate commissioner and president of the Center for
Medicine in the Public Interest. Peter in some metro
areas around the country like Houston and san Francisco,
it has been impossible to find formula for some time
Now. What is the current state of the formula
shortage in the US? The biggest change is that
the FDA has said to Abbott that they can reopen
their Sturgis michigan facility. And that's hugely important because
you're talking about upwards of 40% of the U.
S. Supply That was put on hold because of
that issues of quality and safety. And the plant
definitely had to be closed once that plant becomes fully
online, probably by the middle or end of june
, those probably should be getting into the supply chain
and the Georgia should stop. But unfortunately we'll see
, we will still see shortages probably for another month
. And as difficult as things are in urban areas
, they are even worse in small communities and tribal
areas where parents can't just go to the next door
around the corner where they've got to drive miles if
they even exist in the first place. So what
where is the formula going now that it's being imported
from different places like Switzerland? Is it going straight
to the consumer or where is it going? Where
will we find as new imports? Well, as
you mentioned, the first thing to note is that
, you know, the amount of baby formula is
being flown in from europe is really just a drop
in the bucket. It sounds like a lot.
It really is not. But every little bit helps
. The first tranche coming in uh from Switzerland through
Germany was for those babies that are metabolically challenged and
really must have certain brands to survive. And that's
as it should be. Uh Subsequent products that are
coming in are for all babies and they're being earmarked
for those areas with the most significant shortages. Although
to be honest the biden administration has not been clear
about how they're making their decisions about who gets what
when. So about 98% of formula is made here
in the us. Why hasn't the US decided to
import more of its formula just in case something like
this happens? Well that's a great question. The
other question is why did the FDA wait until 10
days ago to put in place parameters that could bring
in foreign baby formula. This could have been done
as early as february and we would have been that
much further ahead of the curve. But I think
going forward we might want to rethink the 17.5% tariff
currently placed upon foreign baby formula. Baby formula is
a high volume, low margin business. And the
higher the tariffs less likely european manufacturers are to want
to go through the hassle of FDA review to have
their products legally for sale in the US on a
regular basis. How bad was it at Abbott that
the FADA had to step in and closed down?
And what corrections did they make to be able to
open June 4? Oh, it was, it
was a disaster. There were safety issues. There
were quality issues. Abbott had destroyed product the FDA
wanted to investigate. They had done changes to paperwork
. They were not being good actors. It was
real. It would have been a regulatory malpractice to
leave that plant open. I certainly hope that as
the official consent decree goes forward that people at Abbots
are not only find but prosecuted. How is it
that you can regulate Abbott? After what you just
told me? How can we trust them again as
parents and as consumers, as those on the FDA
panel? That's a great question. And that's why
the FDA was at the Abbott plan from february to
this day trying to identify and remediate the problems.
They had to work with them. But at the
end of the day, you know, being in
compliance and doing the right thing is expensive, but
it's the cost of doing business and the fact that
Abbott simply did not hold up its share of the
bargain and put at risk those most at risk in
our society infants is absolutely shocking. Now they are
expected to open on June four like I said.
So how quickly will we see formula back on the
shelves? How quickly can parents finally wipe their brow
and be done with this? Well, the bad
news is you can't just flip the switch and all
of a sudden you're back to where you were before
the plant closed. Once the plan opens, you
know, in early july, it could easily take
two or three weeks, possibly more to get back
up to full volume. What should parents do in
the meantime? Well, unfortunately, they need to
continue doing what they've been doing, which is scrounging
around working with churches and synagogues and community groups,
looking at Facebook organizations helping each other. I think
one of the lessons from COVID-19 is that when we
all hunker down and help each other out, we
can get through rough patches and we're certainly one right
now relative to baby formula. Tell me about it
. Peter pits former FDA associate commissioner and current president
of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
Thank you so much for spending your time with us
and sharing your insight