August 22, 2025- In 2024, Hurricane Helene triggered a nationwide shortage of the country’s intravenous (IV) fluids after damaging a facility in North Carolina. A similar IV fluid shortage was caused when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. In a new, nationwide study led by the American Cancer Society (ACS), scientists found that nearly two-thirds of all pharmaceutical-producing facilities in the United States were located in a county that experienced at least one weather disaster declaration. These disasters, like hurricanes, wildfires, and floods, posed risks for disruptions to facilities active in all aspects of the drug supply chain. The study is published in August 2025 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Study results showed there were 10,861 drug production facilities active from 2019 through 2024, ranging from 5,063 in 2023 to 8,790 in 2020, when 3,860 facilities (43.9%) were in U.S. counties with at least one weather disaster declaration. Cumulatively, in the six-year period, there were 6,819 active facilities (62.8%) in counties when a disaster was declared, and an average of 2,146 active facilities (33.8%) annually over the study period.
Facilities with all types of production activities were in counties with at least one disaster declaration between 2019 and 2024. Hurricanes were the most common climate-influenced disaster in counties with an active drug production facility, but all types of climate-related disasters impacted counties with active facilities during the study period.