Baxter to import 18,000 tons of IV products to US by year-end

(Reuters) – Baxter International said on Thursday it will import 18,000 tons of intravenous products from its newly cleared international plants to the U.S. by the end of the year to mitigate a shortage caused by Hurricane Helene.

The medical device maker expects the products from Europe and Asia to be delivered to the U.S. in about 200 Boeing 747 airplanes.

Baxter said it is pursuing other avenues such as expiration date extension requests to manage shortage of the medical product.

The company received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week to temporarily import products from five facilities in Canada, China, Ireland, and the UK as it works to bring a hurricane-hit plant in North Carolina back online.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)