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Hurricane Maria Tests Pharma Business Continuity Plans

 
• By Bowman Cox

Puerto Rico's slow recovery from Hurricane Maria provides insight into what happens when disaster strikes a node of the global pharmaceutical manufacturing network. Initial efforts to ward off US drug shortages focus on generic injectables that can't support expensive business continuity plans – but even critical prescription brands could be threatened if the US territory's power grid remains off line too long.

Hurricane Maria approaches Puerto Rico, NASA GSFC
Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico, September 2017

Hurricane Maria's Sept. 20 takedown of Puerto Rico's power grid is testing the business continuity plans of the US territory's dozens of pharmaceutical plants, particularly those making generic injectables that sell for the price of a latte.

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