Twelve of the top 20 global pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies have manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico.    Although many factories weren’t seriously damaged, several are running on generators and most have workers who have been personally impacted by the storm and may not be able to report for work.  As a result, we may see some disruption in the pharmaceutical supply chain.
Baxter has been identified as a high risk for supply chain disruption for their IV products, specifically Mini-Bag, Mini-Bag Plus, Premixed IV solutions (non-frozen) as well as anesthesia gases, Suprane® (desflurane) and generic sevoflurane.   These products are on allocation.
Actions to consider:

1. Review your inventory for affected products.
2. Determine what alternatives you will use and communicate product changes to medical and nursing staff.
   1. If you have sufficient freezer and refrigerator space, consider using Baxter’s frozen product line (Galaxy).
   2. Use larger volume diluents if clinically appropriate.
   3. Consider IV push administration where appropriate for drug.
   4. If changing products, discuss with appropriate IT staff to make any required changes to your EMR for billing, CPOE and barcode scanning.
3. Conserve Baxter products where there is no alternative available.
4. Call your Baxter Pharmacy representative for more information on switching to frozen products.

PHV will continue to monitor the situation and communicate important changes with our members. Premier has set up a hurricane update page that has the most up-to-date information.
Please contact Therese Caliendo at PHV with questions.  She can be reached at 402-742-2207 or email at Therese.Caliendo@phvne.com