The Biden administration’s “Operation Fly Formula” will deliver 114 pallets of specialty infant formula to the United States within days in a rapid follow-up to the first load of 132 pallets on Sunday, said the White House. The flights, arranged through the Pentagon, are intended to ease shortages across the nation.
U.S. manufacturers typically satisfy all but a small part of the American market for formula. The White House opened the door to imports in response to ongoing shortages. It says domestic production also has ramped up and Abbott Nutrition will resume operations soon at its plant in Sturgis, Michigan. Abbott is the largest U.S. formula maker and the Sturgis plant provides one-third of its output.
FDA commissioner Robert Califf told lawmakers last week, “We should see improvement in a matter of days” in infant supplies, although other administration officials were reluctant to suggest a timeline. The first planeloads of formula, enough to fill 1.5 million eight-ounce bottles, are intended for babies allergic to cow’s milk.
“We prioritize this for the first shipment because this formula type serves a critical medical purpose and is in short supply in the United States as the result of the Abbott Sturgis plant closure,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“Due to the urgency of the situation, the secretary of Defense approved U.S. military aircraft for this mission on Friday evening,” she said. “Typically, the process to transport this product from Europe to the United States would take two weeks. Thanks to Operation Fly Formula, we cut that down to approximately three days.”
The White House said the second flight would land at a Washington area airport and the formula would be trucked to a Nestlé facility in Pennsylvania. Under Operation Fly Formula, the USDA, which runs child nutrition programs such as WIC, and the Department of Health and Human Services are authorized to use commercial aircraft under contract to the Defense Department.
The first flight landed in Indianapolis, where an administration official said the formula would be distributed to hospitals, pharmacies and doctors’ offices after Nestlé carried out a quality check at its nearby distribution hub, reported The Associated Press.
“This shipment of formula serves a critical medical purpose and will help infants with specific dietary needs requiring specialized formula,” tweeted Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who greeted the flight at Indianapolis.
Nestlé said it might take part in additional flights.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris posted on social media about the flight, the most visible part of the drive to expand formula supplies. Biden’s tweets included video of member of the U.S. Transportation Command loading formula onto the plane bound for Indiana.