Emergency shipment of baby formula arrives in US

Enough specialty infant formula for more than half a million baby bottles has arrived in the United States from Europe. The 78,000 pounds of formula was being transported by military plane to Indianapolis on Sunday.  It is the first of several flights carrying infant formula from Europe this weekend to relieve the deepening nationwide shortage, particularly of hypoallergenic formula. Indianapolis was chosen because it is a Nestle distribution hub.

The formula was offloaded into FedEx semi trailers and taken to a Nestle distribution center about a mile away where the company will do a standard quality control check before distributing the supplies to hospitals, pharmacies and doctor's offices, according to an administration official on site. U.S. regulators and the manufacturer, Abbott Nutrition, hope to have its Michigan plant reopened next week, but it will take about two months before product is ready for delivery.