America’s fragile drug supply chain is extremely vulnerable to climate change
When Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina in September 2024, one of its many victims was a manufacturing plant that made intravenous fluids. The sterile IV solutions produced in the plant are essential supplies for hospitals and other medical facilities, which use them in various treatments, from rehydration to drug delivery and kidney dialysis. And the plant damaged by Helene—Baxter International's North Cove manufacturing facility in Marion—didn't just make some of the US supply; it