Rep. Schrier Presses FDA, Abbott on Baby Formula Shortage During Oversight Hearing

WASHINGTON, DC – Today Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) participated in an Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing about the ongoing baby formula shortage. Rep. Schrier, the first and only pediatrician elected to Congress, pushed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Abbott Nutrition about the steps they have taken to mitigate the shortage and what can be done to make sure it never happens again. Rep. Schrier’s remarks can be found here and here.

“This is an extremely distressing time for parents with infants and parents-to-be. Most babies, even those who are primarily breastfed, rely on formula. And baby formula, in many ways, is more like medicine than food, since there are no substitutes and babies younger than 6 months rely on formula for their nutrition,” said Rep. Schrier. “When I was practicing as a doctor, we would regularly get notifications that a certain medicine was starting to run low on supply. Since formula is really something between food and medication for infants younger than 6 months, and some babies well older than that, I wonder if such a system would make sense.”

Rep. Schrier went on to ask FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D. whether a system like the one that exists for medicine exists for formula or whether one like it would have helped in preventing the shortage.

Another issue that Rep. Schrier brought up with both Commissioner Califf and Christopher Calamari, Abbott’s President of U.S. and Canada Nutrition was cleanliness and health safety concerns that FDA has found in their investigations and an Abbott whistleblower brought up in recently released report.

Rep. Schrier continued, “Mr. Calamari, the other question on parents’ minds - and pediatrician's - is about trust. Why should we trust that once the factory is re-opened, the contamination problems will have been corrected? The same issues found in 2019 were found again in 2021. The whistleblower report was damning. But perhaps the most concerning was the culture that covered it up. Falsified testing. Falsified container weights. How can we trust that the testing and reporting by those same employees will be honest? The FDA doesn’t have the staffing to be there and monitor.”

Mr. Calamari told Rep. Schrier that he and Abbott are working hand in hand with the FDA to get the Sturgis facility up and running, with safety as a priority. Dr. Califf of the FDA assured Rep. Schrier that formula coming out of the Sturgis facility could be counted on to be safe and healthy for babies.

Rep. Schrier is working on legislation on preventing baby formula shortages to ensure we do not have a crisis like this again.