US Pharma Giant "Not yet Producing Bulk Product" Because of NotPetya Outbreak

[LASER_oneXM]

US pharmaceutics giant Merck was severely affected by the NotPetya ransomware outbreak that took place at the end of June, and the company is still struggling to restore all systems and resume normal operations, according to an 8-K report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Filed last Friday, the report reveals that the NotPetya ransomware has had a severe impact on Merck's global operations, affecting the company's manufacturing, research, and sales operations.

The company is in the process of restoring its manufacturing operations. To date, Merck has largely restored its packaging operations and has partially restored its formulation operations. The company is in the process of restoring its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient operations but is not yet producing bulk product. The company’s external manufacturing was not impacted.
Despite the events, Merck says it continued to fulfill orders and ship product, most likely from previous stocks. Merck also says that it will continue to ship key products such as KEYTRUDA, JANUVIA, and ZEPATIER, critical drugs for various illnesses.

NotPetya affected other major companies
NotPetya also included a self-spreading component that infected computers on the same local networks. In the case of multinational companies, it was this component that spread NotPetya to other offices in other countries.

This is how international companies got infected with a threat designed to target only Ukrainian businesses. Documented victims include Danish container transportation giant Maersk; Spanish food conglomerate Mondelez and law firm giant DLA Piper; UK marketing firm WPP; French construction materials manufacturer Saint-Gobain; and Russian oil giant Rosneft.

Besides Merck, NotPetya also caused major damages at another US company. Two weeks ago, FedEx said the NotPetya outbreak produced permanent damages to some of its international courier delivery systems.