“This is a manufacturing failure,” Dittmeier said. Instead he says manufacturers should be held accountable for not investing in their own capacity. Brian Dittmeier of the National WIC Association says doing away with sole-source contracts would jeopardize the savings that allow the plan to serve so many Americans. Department of Agriculture found that whichever company wins a state’s WIC contract typically sees their market share grow by 74%, on average, as WIC recipients switch to their brand.īut not everyone supports overhauling the system. The competitive effects of these sole-source contracts have been researched for years. Abbott is the leader, with 34 state contracts. Today, all 50 WIC contracts are held by three companies: Abbott, Reckitt and Nestle, according to the association. The effect is that contract winners quickly squeeze out much of the competition on store shelves. market, providing formula for more than 1.2 million babies, according to the National WIC Association, which represents state and local administrators who run the benefit.īeginning in 1989, federal law has required states to award contracts to a single formula company, based on whichever one can offer the biggest discounts. The WIC program accounts for more than 50% of the U.S. market, by far, is a massive federal nutrition program that provides formula and other foods to lower-income women and children. The products are expected to begin arriving in U.S. In a related move, the FDA said Tuesday it would allow the importation of 2 million cans of Kendal Nutricare formula from the U.K to boost supplies. Responding to political pressure, the Biden administration has begun airlifting shipments of formula from Europe. has long imposed tariffs and quotas on dairy imports from abroad, including Canada, in order to shield American milk producers from competition. There are other hurdles for foreign manufacturers looking to compete.
manufacturers that are capable of navigating the complex requirements. The attention could spur changes to government safety and contracting rules that have been in place since the 1980s and favor big U.S. Lawmakers will hold three hearings on the issue this week, calling on company executives, government regulators and outside experts to testify. The product was not part of a February recall.
The company also said it received permission from regulators to release 300,000 cans of its EleCare specialty formula for babies with allergic and digestive disorders. and has been closed since February, hobbling supplies of popular formulas and specialty formulas for children with rare medical conditions. The factory is the largest of its kind in the U.S. ”We’ve created this problem by not setting up an infrastructure for imports.”Ībbott Nutrition said Tuesday it expects to restart its shuttered Michigan plant June 4 and begin shipping new formula to stores about three weeks later. We just don’t have access to it,” said Bindiya Vakil, CEO of Resilinc, a supply chain analytics firm.
“There’s perfectly good and safe baby formula available around the world. Those government rules - aimed at assuring safe, affordable formula - are getting renewed scrutiny as President Joe Biden’s administration rushes to import formula from Europe.
baby formula shortage, but experts say the products have long been vulnerable to this type of crisis due to decades-old policies that have allowed a handful of companies to corner the market. WASHINGTON (AP) - A massive recall is getting most of the blame for the U.S.