A military plane carrying enough specialty infant formula for more than half a million baby bottles arrived in Indianapolis on Sunday, the first of several flights expected from Europe aimed at relieving a shortage that has sent parents scrambling to find enough to feed their children.
US President Joe Biden authorized the use of US Air Force planes for the effort, dubbed “Operation Fly Formula,” because no commercial flights were available.
The formula weighed 35,380kg, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden flew from South Korea to Japan.
Photo: AFP / Airman First Class Jared Lovett / US Air Force
US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was in Indianapolis to greet the arrival of the first shipment.
The flights are intended to provide “some incremental relief in the coming days” as the government works on a more lasting response to the shortage, US National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said.
Deese told CNN’s State of the Union that Sunday’s flight brought 15 percent of the specialty medical-grade formula needed in the US, and because of various actions by the government, people should see “more formula in stores starting as early as this week.”
Photo: AFP
In the longer term, the US needs more formula providers “so that no individual company has this much control over supply chains,” he said.
Later on Sunday, the White House announced the first two Defense Production Act authorizations for infant formula, both coming from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The manufacturer Abbott Nutrition can now receive priority orders of raw materials such as sugar and corn syrup for infant formula, which the White House said would allow it to quickly increase production by one-third.
Reckitt, owner of Mead-Johnson, can now receive priority orders of consumables such as filters and other single-use products necessary to generate certain oils needed to produce infant formula, the White House said, adding that it would enable Reckitt facilities to operate at maximum capacity.
The Biden administration has struggled to address the nationwide shortage of formula, particularly hypoallergenic varieties. The crisis follows the closure of the nation’s largest domestic manufacturing plant in Michigan in February due to safety issues.
The White House has said 132 pallets of Nestle Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior formula were to leave Ramstein Air Base in Germany for the US.
Another 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive HA formula were expected to arrive in the coming days.
Altogether, about 1.5 million 8ml bottles of the three formulas, which are hypoallergenic for children with cow’s milk protein allergies, are expected to arrive this week.
Indianapolis was chosen because it is a Nestle distribution hub. The formula is to be offloaded into FedEx semitractor-trailers and taken to a Nestle distribution center about 1.6km away where the company is to do a standard quality control check before distributing the supplies to hospitals, pharmacies and doctor’s offices, an administration official on site said.
In a statement Sunday, the White House said a Pentagon-sourced FedEx Express flight of Nestle SA formula from Ramstein Air Base would be bound for a Nestle facility in Pennsylvania.
Nestle said that over the past few months it has worked “around the clock” to address the formula shortage and help meet demand.
“We have significantly increased the amount of our formulas available to consumers by ramping up production and accelerating general product availability to retailers and online, as well as through hospitals and home healthcare for those most vulnerable,” the company said in a release.
US regulators and Abbott Nutrition hope to have its Michigan plant reopened next week, but it will take about two months before product is ready for delivery.
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