RALEIGH, N.C. (NEWSnet/AP) — Most of the destruction from a tornado that tore through eastern North Carolina Wednesday and struck a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant affected primarily a storage facility, the company said Friday.

The drugmaker’s ability to recover production equipment and essential materials could mitigate what experts feared would be a major blow to an already strained drug supply system in the United States.

“We do not expect there to be any immediate significant impacts on supply given the products are currently at hospitals and in the distribution system,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said Friday.

An EF3 tornado touched down Wednesday near Rocky Mount, ripping the roof off a Pfizer factory responsible for producing nearly 25% of the American pharmaceutical giant's sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, according to the drugmaker.

Pfizer said Friday that a warehouse for raw materials, packaging supplies and finished medicines awaiting release had endured most of the damage to its 1.4 million square foot plant. An initial inspection by the company found no major damage to its medicine manufacturing areas, and all 3,200 local employees are safe and accounted for.

The FDA’s initial analysis identified fewer than 10 drugs for which Pfizer’s North Carolina plant is the sole source for the U.S. market, Califf said.

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