Hurricane damage squeezes supply chains

When hurricane Harvey ravaged southeast Texas in August it shut down more than half of US production linear alpha olefins (LAOs), which corresponds to about one sixth of global production. There is very limited spare capacity globally for LAOs, so many producers of products like polyethylene that depend upon these suppliers are ‘scrambling to secure supply’.

As Puerto Rico recovers from the devastation of hurricanes Irma and Maria in September, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been working closely with pharma companies to reduce the risk of critical drug shortages and to minimise the impact on any existing shortages of medicines.