Press Release - President Biden Announces 20th Fly Formula Mission

Biden Administration will facilitate air shipment of over 862,000 8-ounce bottle equivalents of Nestlé Health Science Alfamino® Infant and Alfamino® Junior formula and SMA Nutrition Althéra specialty formula on August 26, following over 8 million 8-ounce bottle equivalents of Nestlé product coming through truck shipment earlier in August

Today, President Biden is announcing that his Administration is sourcing one flight, facilitated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for Operation Fly Formula to transport Nestlé Health Science Alfamino® Infant and Alfamino® Junior formula and SMA Nutrition Althéra specialty formula products from Switzerland and the Netherlands to New York, NY on August 26, and then trucked to Plainfield, IN. These deliveries will include approximately 68,000 pounds of Nestlé specialty formula product, the equivalent of over 862,000 8-ounce bottles. These products will be distributed through retail, hospitals and home health care providers and are intended for use under medical supervision.

Between August 1 and 15, the Biden Administration also sourced several truck shipments from Mexico to Fort Worth, TX of Nestlé Gerber Good Start Gentle formula. These deliveries included approximately 566,000 pounds of Nestlé product, the equivalent of over 8.4 million 8-ounce bottles.

Beginning in May, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the agency is exercising enforcement discretion so that Nestlé can export additional infant formula into the U.S. Nestlé will import both standard and specialty infant formulas including Nestlé NAN® SupremePro 1 and NAN® SupremePro 2, Nestlé NAN® EXPERTpro SensiPro, Nestlé Health Science Alfamino® Infant and Alfamino® Junior, Vitaflo PKU start™, Gerber® Good Start® Gentle and Gerber® Good Start® Extensive HA®, and Nestlé SMA Nutrition Althéra. Over time Nestlé plans to bring approximately more than 42 million 8-ounce bottle equivalents into the U.S. market.

President Biden launched Operation Fly Formula to speed up the import of infant formula and start getting more formula to stores as soon as possible. Under Operation Fly Formula, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Department of Defense (DOD) are partnering to pick up overseas infant formula that meets U.S. health and safety standards, so it can get to store shelves, hospitals and home health care providers faster. To date, Operation Fly Formula has transported nearly 79 million 8-ounce bottle equivalents to the U.S.

In addition, the Biden Administration has taken a number of other important actions to ensure there is enough safe infant formula for families, including invoking the Defense Production Act, entering into a consent agreement between the FDA and Abbott Nutrition to reopen the company's Sturgis facility, and issuing FDA guidance so that major formula manufacturers can safely import formula that is not currently being produced for the U.S. market. Details of our actions can be found at whitehouse.gov/formula.