ZEBULON, N.C. (AP) – The medications produced at a GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical plant are safe despite the decision to close the factory after the discovery of the bacteria that causes potentially fatal Legionnaires’ disease, the company said Wednesday.
The London-based drug maker expects within three days it will reopen the manufacturing plant in Zebulon, about 25 miles east of Raleigh, which makes inhaled medications. The plant was closed Tuesday after routine testing found legionella bacteria in two external cooling towers.
“No employees are sick and no products have been compromised,” spokeswoman Jenni Brewer Ligday wrote in an email. “Medicines were not exposed to the bacteria.”
North Carolina health officials said Wednesday that no cases of Legionnaires’ disease linked to the Glaxo plant have been reported.
People can contract Legionnaires’ disease when they inhale water vapor or mist containing the bacteria, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. It does not spread from person to person, the agency said.