A shipment of 35 tons of baby formula arrived in Indianapolis on Sunday to help ease the nationwide shortage. The formula was packed onto a C-17 military cargo plane in Germany. None of the formulas, produced in Zurich, is meant for general consumption though, a Biden administration official told CNN. Sunday’s shipment includes hypoallergenic formulas for babies intolerant of cow milk’s protein.
The shipment includes enough formula for 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers for one week, the White House said. It is also the equivalent of 1.5 million doses of eight-ounce bottles. “It is a large shipment of very specific and specialized formula,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters after the plane arrived. “Formula for moms and dads who have children who have allergies where the regular formula just simply will not work.”
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The pallets included Nestle Health Science formulas for infants and toddlers. A Biden administration official told CNN earlier this week that the formula will be sent to hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, and home health care facilities “where the needs are most acute.” Another 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive HA formula are expected to be arriving soon, reports CBS News.
The plane arrived in Indianapolis because Nestle has a distribution center there. The formula was then loaded onto FedEx trailers to go the Nestle’s distribution hub. The company will do its usual quality checks before distributing the formula. The formula was produced in a factory that already has approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An FDA inspector will still be on-site to perform spot checks.
The flight was the first from Operation Fly Formula and is just the start. National Economic Council director Brian Deese told CNN’s State of the Union host Dana Bash that more formula is “coming in early this week.” When asked why the shortage happened in the first place, Deese said market consolidation was one reason. “It goes back to this question of how we can bring more competition in our economy, have more providers have this formula so that no individual company has this much control over supply chains,” he told Bash.
A second flight is already set, President Joe Biden’s team tweeted Sunday afternoon. “I have an update on Operation Fly Formula. We have secured a second flight to transport Nestlé specialty infant formula to Pennsylvania,” the White House said. “The flight and trucking will take place in the coming days, and I will continue to keep you updated.”
Operation Fly Formula gives the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services the authority to ask the Department of Defense to help transport overseas infant formula that meets USDA standards and get them in stores quickly. The FA also eased importation requirements. The moves should help while Abbott Nutrition works with U.S. regulators to reopen its facility. The company had to shut down the largest domestic formula manufacturing plant over safety concerns in February. Even after the facility reopens, it could take about two months to get product ready to ship.
