Baxter’s North Carolina-based North Cove manufacturing site, which employs more than 2,500 people focused on making intravenous and peritoneal dialysis solutions, was hit hard last year by Hurricane Helene. The damage resulted in the temporary closure of the facility, the country’s largest manufacturer of these solutions, which impacted the domestic supply chain.
But now the factory is almost fully restored to pre-hurricane production levels.
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“We continue to make strong progress at North Cove and have now restarted all of the site’s 10 manufacturing lines. While some lines require additional time to ramp up production, we currently expect to be producing at pre-hurricane levels across the plant early in the first quarter of 2025,” the company wrote in an update.
Baxter announced the factory’s closure in late September after Helene caused significant flooding in the area. Ahead of the storm, Baxter implemented its hurricane preparedness plan, which included evacuation plans for colleagues, as well as proactively moving products to higher ground or secure storage where feasible. The heavy rain and storm surge triggered a levee breach, which led to water permeating the site. The bridges accessing the site were also damaged.
After months of work to clean and restore the facility, Baxter late last year released the first product – 1-liter IV solutions – that was manufactured at the site since the flooding occurred.