2nd formula flight set this week

Military transport to bring enough to fill 1.5 million bottles

A second flight is expected to bring additional supplies infant formula intended to fill a nationwide shortage in the coming days, the Biden administration said Monday.

The first shipment that arrived Sunday, equivalent to about 500,000 8-ounce bottles, contained a hypoallergenic formula for children with cow’s milk protein allergy, the White House said in a statement. It provides enough formula to take care of 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers for a week, Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, said in televised remarks at the airport in Indianapolis, where the shipment arrived on a military plane from Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“This shipment of formula serves a critical medical purpose and will help infants with specific dietary needs requiring specialized formula,” Vilsack said on Twitter.

A second shipment, which is expected to arrive this week, would bring the supply of formula up to the equivalent of 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles of three formulas, which would later be distributed from a Nestle facility in Pennsylvania.

It was not immediately clear how soon consumers would see adequate supplies of formula on supermarket shelves.

Because they are designed for children with allergies, Nestle, which produces two of the formula brands that were part of the shipment, said supplies would be available through hospitals and home health-care companies, with small quantities potentially available online.

Asked during an interview with NBC News when shelves would be full again, Vilsack said, “I think that’s a matter of weeks.”

The transports are part of a series of measures taken by the Biden administration to address the shortage of infant and toddler formula as frustrated families searched depleted supermarket shelves.

President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act last week to increase production and authorized the use of Defense Department planes for “Operation Fly Formula” to respond to the crisis.

In February, Abbott Nutrition, which controls 48% of the formula market in the United States, voluntarily recalled some of its most popular brands — Similac, Alimentum and EleCare — after four babies were hospitalized with bacterial infections. At least two babies died, although the company said this month that there was no evidence its formula caused any known infant illnesses.

Abbott also shut down its plant in Sturgis, Mich., and the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to use the recalled brands produced there.

The effects of the closure of the Sturgis plant have been widespread, with stores limiting purchases of formula and parents desperately seeking supplies or trying to make formula at home, which pediatricians discourage. The shortage has also been exacerbated by supply chain woes and labor shortages associated with the pandemic.

The statement from the White House said the pallets of formula that arrived Sunday were “prioritized because they serve a critical medical purpose” and were in short supply because of the plant closure in Sturgis.

In another step to address the acute shortages, the FDA announced last week that it would relax some of its regulations to encourage new suppliers to provide formula. The United States normally produces about 98% of the formula it consumes, with imports coming primarily from Mexico, Ireland and the Netherlands.