Shortages to last for the “balance of the year.”
QUICK FACTS:
- Perrigo Company, maker of store-brand baby formulas for Walmart and Amazon, expects shortages and high demand to last for the “balance of the year,” CEO Murray Kessler said in an interview with Reuters.
- Perrigo’s Ohio and Vermont formula manufacturing plants are now running at 115% capacity.
- The Food and Drug Administration asked the company to only make four items: the store-brand versions of Similac Pro Sensitive and Pro Advance and Enfamil Gentle Ease and Infant.
HOW MUCH FORMULA EACH STORE GETS:
CEO Kessler said his infant formula maker is also working with Walmart and Target so they “get something each week.” He explained retailers’ allowances are based on an average of what the retailers’ received prior to “this crisis.”
BACKGROUND:
- Food shortages were worsened by the closure of an Abbott Laboratorie infant-formula plant in Michigan.
- White House chief of staff Ron Klain recently told a member of Congress that the White House is “absolutely” and “strongly” considering having Joe Biden invoke the Defense Production Act to address the pressing baby formula shortage problem.
