There is growing bipartisan agreement that we need to bring pharmaceutical production back home. But one enormous hurdle remains.
. All employ a similar central theme and strategy: Bolster domestic manufacturing through tried and tested measures.
So, why aren't we doing that? Why isn't the U.S. acting when both political extremes are saying the same thing—that we need to incentivize the domestic production of pharmaceuticals here at home? It's fairly simple: economics and know-how. The U.S. has spent the past 20-plus years creating an economic system in which China can provide national support to those making API, which in turns allows those companies to lower their prices and kill U.S. production. The result is that most of the large-scale manufacturing technology and knowledge has also been exported out of this country.
This has led to the scary fact that no one knows where most of our drugs come from. While the FDA may know how many facilities make API, their leading officials have testified that even the agency does not know how much API we receive from international suppliers. Going forward, we need to mandate that the FDA track the production and use of foreign API.
While re-shoring U.S. production of API sparks industry concerns about price increases, if phased in over time, combined with an elimination of shipping and foreign inspection costs, such a shift could be made free of dramatic swings in drug costs. In addition, job gains domestically, and the related economic benefit and national security protection from the new domestic production of API, would further offset added costs.
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