Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed many American lives. Millions are still out of work. This is the public toll of the virus. However, the disruption caused by the pandemic runs deeper.
The coronavirus has made Americans more aware of the pitfalls of heavy dependence on imports. When it first emerged, many countries banned exports of essential generic drugs and key components. That left U.S. hospitals scrambling to address shortages of medicines and personal protective equipment (PPE).
Members of Congress subsequently introduced legislation to boost PPE supplies, and manufacturers retooled their factories to produce needed equipment. But there’s still another problem — the U.S. continues to depend on countries like China for critical inputs and ingredients in common generic medicines.
Over the past 30 years, much of America’s drug manufacturing has moved offshore, including the production of generic medications that comprise 90% of the nation’s daily needs. As a result, thousands of drugs are made with ingredients produced only in China.
The situation is dire. The U.S. no longer manufactures penicillin and has virtually no capacity to produce antibiotics like the ones that treat pediatric ear infections, pneumonia, and even anthrax exposure. The U.S. also imports 95% of its ibuprofen and 70% of its acetaminophen from China.
Compounding these problems is that, at the onset of the pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration had to recall all of its overseas inspectors. Since then, generic drugs have been entering the U.S. from overseas factories without proper inspection.
This poses serious risks. In 2007 and 2008, for example, hundreds of Americans died from tainted supplies of Chinese-made heparin. More recently, millions of Americans were sold blood pressure medicine from a Chinese company that contained more than 200 times the acceptable limit per pill of a known carcinogen.
The U.S. must start manufacturing these drugs. A key first step would be for Medicare and Medicaid to require that hospitals prioritize the use of U.S.-made essential generic drugs.
It’s time for Washington to make sure that millions of Americans have reliable access to safe, quality, generic drugs. As the nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s little time to waste in protecting the nation’s health care, now and in the future.
Rosemary Gibson chairs the healthcare committee of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. She is the author of "China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine."