According to recent research from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, China is the chief producer of key ingredients for pharmaceutical medicine, and its dominance in this field is only continuing to grow.
An analysis cited in the brief from China economy expert Niels Graham reveals that imports of pharmaceuticals from China to the U.S. have increased 600 percent between 2016 and 2021.
During the early stages of COVID-19, China stopped producing and exporting protective equipment for healthcare workers, citing quality concerns. Despite the great demand, this created a disruption in the supply chain for these items, which in turn caused healthcare access to plunge and U.S. spending to increase in order to cover the 200 percent to 1,000 percent price difference for these items.
Even after COVID, China has continued to lead and dominate the production of medical protection equipment. The U.S. has tried to increase its production but is unable due to China’s dominance in the market and rising inflation. This has made the U.S. increasingly dependent on China for these items.
“America must learn from recent history and recognize the threat posed by dependence on Chinese manufacturing—namely, drug manufacturing,” the brief by Chuck Devore and Tanner Aliff explained.
There are also concerns that, since most of the production of these key ingredients is on foreign shores, oversight of the production is hard for federal agencies to keep track of due to complex global supply chains, the difficulty of inspecting foreign manufacturing plants, and the FDA’s goal of focusing on monitoring and assessing quality of the finished product.
“Even in more widespread regulatory studies, China lags behind the U.S. in having oversight over their environmental, energy, manufacturing, and chemicals industries,” Devore and Aliff wrote.
TPPF has laid out four different policy recommendations for Texas and other states concerned about the future of safe and reliable pharmaceutical supplies: origin labeling, state quota contracts and bids, reform of state drug regulations and market dynamics, and an analysis of the vulnerability of the supply chain.
“The reality of the matter is that American drug manufacturing has been moving overseas for years, and it has been to the detriment of national security and overall patient health,” Devore and Aliff explained.
“State action is warranted, and states need not wait on Washington, D.C. for resolutions.”
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
