HHS Secretary Leads Roundtable on Blood Culture Media Bottle Shortage

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra recently hosted a roundtable with government officials, health care leaders, distributors and Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) representatives to address the ongoing shortage of blood culture media bottles.

During the discussion, BD outlined steps taken to stabilize production and projected that the company would fully meet demand in the United States by the end of September, with production reaching 125% of historical levels by year-end to rebuild inventory.

BD addressed the shortage and detailed the specific SKUs affected in a June 11 letter to customers. AABB previously confirmed that BD’s BACTEC aerobic platelet testing medium (SKU 442053) and BD BACTEC anaerobic platelet testing medium (SKU 442054) are not included in the list of impacted BD products.