- A massive 150 MPH tornado has devastated a Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina
- It destroyed a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant on Wednesday
- The plant makes 25 percent of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals
A tornado which tore across 40 miles of North Carolina at 150mph has devastated a Pfizer plant – which will lead to long-term medicine shortages, experts warn.
The major Pfizer facility in Rocky Mount was destroyed on Wednesday, with its roof partially collapsing after the powerful weather system battered the region.
Some 50,000 pallets of medicine were damaged, according to officials. The destruction threatens the production of anesthetics and other sterile injectables.
The plant is one of the largest of its kind in the world and supplies 25 percent of all sterile injectables used in US hospitals.
The pharmaceutical giant said in a statement all employees were safely evacuated and there were no reports of serious injuries in the plant.
Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said large quantities of medicine stored at the plant were tossed about during the tornado, according to Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone.
‘I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind,’ the official said, according to CBS News.
Pfizer said the 250 acre site, with 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space, ‘is one of the largest sterile injectable facilities in the world’.
Around 400 million units leave the site annually.
It also produces vials, syringes, IV bags and bottles of anesthesia, analgesia, therapeutics, anti-infectives and neuromuscular blockers.