Baby formula maker Abbott has reached a deal with federal regulators to get its shuttered Sturgis, Michigan, plant up and running again, a move that will help alleviate the severe nationwide shortage.

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The company announced Monday that it had reached an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration to jump-start production at the facility within the next couple of weeks.

“Our number one priority is getting infants and families the high-quality formulas they need, and this is a major step toward re-opening our Sturgis facility so we can ease the nationwide formula shortage,” Abbott CEO Robert Ford said. “We look forward to working with the FDA to quickly and safely re-open the facility.”

Abbott did not disclose the terms of the agreement but said that production could resume within the next two weeks. Still, products will not appear on shelves for another six to eight weeks, the company said last week.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf teased an announcement of the deal earlier Monday, telling Good Morning America that “Abbott is responsible for the timeline, but I’m very comfortable with what they said about two weeks.”

The current formula shortage has parents scrambling to find supplies in stores hours from their homes or on social media sites for an inflated price. The resumption of production at the Sturgis facility will ease the pain of the shortage, which began last summer and has steadily worsened since then. Supplies in the United States dwindled further in February when Abbott halted production and recalled several formula brands after the FDA received reports of four infants becoming severely ill with bacterial infections. Two of them died.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a thorough sweep of the plant and concluded that the bacteria responsible for the infections, Cronobacter sakazakii, were only found in non-product contact areas of the facility and have not been linked to any known infant illness. Genetic sequencing of samples from two of the infants revealed that their cases of Cronobacter sakazakii did not match the strains found in the Sturgis plant.

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The February recall of some of Abbott’s powdered formulas and subsequent plant shutdown caused considerable strain on the market, which is dominated by just four brands — Abbott Nutrition, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle, and Perrigo.