Medical equipment manufacturer said it’s been managing inventory as it works to fully restore its North Cove manufacturing operations, which were shut down late last month due to flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.
For the company, this has included placing limits on what a customer can order based on historical purchases and medical necessity, which the company said could help avoid stockpiling.
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Now, based on its efforts to increase manufacturing capacity at its other sites and the anticipated timing of inbound products and air shipments, Baxter is increasing the current U.S. allocation levels of its highest demand IV fluids for direct customers from 40% to 60%, and for distributors from 10% to 60%. The company is also increasing high concentration dextrose and sterile water for injection allocations and expects to make additional increases for certain product codes by early November. Due to the vulnerable patient population they serve, allocations for IV solutions and nutrition products for designated children’s hospitals were increased to 100%.
“Our goal continues to be to restore customers to 100% allocation levels as soon as possible. This would be achieved through a combination of importing product from other Baxter facilities and the resumption of operations and scale up of production at our North Cove facility,” the company said in an update. “Based on the current status of our remediation efforts, our expectations regarding our ability to reallocate capacity from other Baxter facilities, and initiation of temporary importation on certain products, our goal is to restart North Cove production in phases and return to 90% to 100% allocation of certain IV solution product codes by the end of 2024.”
The North Cove facility in Marion, N.C., which employs more than 2,500 people, focuses primarily on making intravenous and peritoneal dialysis solutions. The company said it’s the country’s largest manufacturer of these solutions.