Political | Process

“The FDA needs to immediately step up, be transparent, explain how it will get production restarted, and give parents a timeline. And the Biden Administration needs to take this seriously,” he tweeted. 

“The formula shortage is a national crisis, hitting poor moms and kids the hardest. The FDA needs to immediately step up, be transparent, explain how it will get production restarted, and give parents a timeline. And the Biden Administration needs to take this seriously.”

At retailers across the U.S., 40% of the top-selling baby formula products were out of stock as of the week ending April 24, a new analysis from Disassembly, which tracked baby formula stock at more than 11,000 stores, shows. National out-of-stock levels jumped nine percentage points, from 31% to 40% between April 3 and April 24. That’s up sharply from 11% in November.

“This is a shocking number that you don’t see for other categories,” Ben Reich, CEO of Datasembly told CBS MoneyWatch.

The supply of baby formula was already so constrained that retailers have been limiting the number of products consumers are allowed to purchase in order to preserve their inventories. 

Drugstore chains Walgreens and CVS Health, and department store Target in April put limits on how many baby formula products consumers can purchase at one time.

A spokesperson for Walgreens told CBS MoneyWatch it is limiting customers to three infant and toddler formula products per transaction, citing “increased demand and various supplier issues.”

CVS Health also said it has imposed a limit of three baby formula products per purchase in stores and online, until it can procure sufficient supply from its vendors. 

And a spokesperson for Target confirmed it has product limitations in place. At Target.com, consumers can only purchase up to four pieces of a given baby formula product at a time.