Business

Most of the destruction from a tornado that tore through eastern North Carolina Wednesday and struck a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant affected its storage facility, rather than its medicine production areas, the company said Friday. The drugmaker’s ability to salvage production equipment and other essential materials could mitigate what experts feared would be a major blow to an already strained system as the United States grapples with existing drug shortages.

The best lacrosse players in the world don’t have a home. Or rather, they have a home, but they’re gone from it almost every summer weekend and don’t necessarily share that city with teammates. The Premier Lacrosse League — now in its fifth season — is a barnstorming tour with teams untethered to regions. Instead, in a model more similar to pro tennis or golf than to traditional American team sports, squads with one-word names such as the Waterdogs and the Atlas take their show on the road with a 14-week season spanning June to September.

Football fans in the nation’s capital are enjoying their biggest victory since Joe Gibbs’ Hogs won their third Super Bowl 31 years ago. It might take a while before Washington celebrates similar on-field success. Getting rid of owner Dan Snyder is the first step toward rebuilding a once-proud franchise, but it won’t be easy after decades of decline. The Commanders’ new ownership led by Josh Harris and including Magic Johnson has plenty of major challenges ahead. Harris outlined his priorities Friday.

Health care institutions continue to be Greater Baltimore’s leading employers, taking six of the top 10 spots on the Baltimore Business Journal’s Largest Private-Sector Employers List. At the top of the BBJ’s newly released List sits Johns Hopkins Health System, dethroning last year’s leader, the University of Maryland Medical System. It’s the ninth consecutive year that Johns Hopkins was ranked as one of Greater Baltimore’s largest employers and the first time since 2020 it was ranked No. 1.

A couple of Washington, D.C.-area restaurateurs will bring Creole cooking to Baltimore’s Northwood Commons development. Jeffeary “Chef Jeff” Miskiri and his wife, Toya Miskiri, plan to open Miss Toya’s Creole House early next year in the North Baltimore shopping center, which is in the midst of a $50 million redevelopment.

The fallout from a Pfizer factory being damaged by a tornado could put even more pressure on already-strained drug supplies at U.S. hospitals, experts say. Wednesday’s tornado touched down near Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and ripped up the roof of a Pfizer factory that makes nearly 25% of Pfizer’s sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, according to the drugmaker.

Baja Tap is slated to open in the former Bond Street Social space in Fells Point on Sept. 15, the owners of the Mexican restaurant said on Thursday after receiving approval for a liquor license from the Baltimore City liquor board. The venture at 901 S. Bond St. will be the second Baja Tap location opened by the Wave Group, the Virginia- and D.C.-area restaurant partnership that launched the concept in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of D.C. in March 2023 with a rooftop bar, patio and extensive menu.