Abbott Resumes Baby-Formula Production at Shuttered Facility
Abbott Nutrition announced that it is resuming production of baby formula at a processing plant in Sturgis, Mich., amid an ongoing nationwide shortage of formula.
“Abbott is starting production of EleCare and other specialty and metabolic formulas, with initial EleCare product release to consumers beginning on or about June 20,” the company said in a statement. “We’re also working hard to fulfill the steps necessary to restart production of Similac and other formulas and will do so as soon as we can.”
The plant was reopened under an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration reached in mid-May. The company shuttered the Michigan factory in February following reports of four infants contracting illnesses after being fed formula made at the plant, including two who died. Abbott has claimed “there is no conclusive evidence to link Abbott’s formulas to these infant illnesses.”
The closure of the Michigan plan worsened a baby formula shortage throughout the U.S. President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act on May 18 to direct suppliers of materials used in baby formula to route products to formula makers before other customers, and to fly baby formula in from Europe.
However, Biden also claimed that he was not informed of the intensity of the shortage until April, in a meeting with executives of baby formula manufacturers on Wednesday.
“I became aware of this problem sometime in . . after April or in early April about how intense it was,” Biden said. “And so we did everything in our power from that point on.”
Biden: “I became aware of this problem in early April”
It took Biden until May 13 to first mention the baby formula crisis. pic.twitter.com/N0lfVpWDa5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 1, 2022
