Bipartisan Lawmakers Advocate Boosting American Pharmaceutical Production

A bottle and pills of hydroxychloroquine sit on a counter at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, on May 20, 2020. George Frey/AFP via Getty Images

Reps. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) are pushing forward bills aimed at raising the domestic production of drugs in a bid to strengthen the health care security situation in America.

In an interview with The Hill, Soto pointed out that the country faces drug shortages mainly owing to the fact that it is dependent on nations like China and India to secure supplies. At present, 72 percent of pharmaceuticals in the United States are imported, with 13 percent coming from “economic rival” China.

America’s vulnerability due to its reliance on foreign drug imports became very apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, he stated. Soto noted that India withheld 26 drugs during this period to make sure their people had access to these medications.

“Now, nobody can really blame them for that, but at the same time that puts us in a predicament, where we don’t have access to those drugs,” he said while insisting that the United States must be better prepared to meet such emergency situations. Soto and Carter have introduced two bills to rectify the situation.

The State Stockpile Readiness Act will temporarily authorize the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) to provide states with matching grants for the purpose of maintaining or expanding stockpiles of medical supplies and equipment to be used during public health emergencies.

The Essential Medicines Strategic Stockpile Act will create a pilot program with private entities to test the effectiveness of acquiring, maintaining, managing, and distributing a stockpile of generic drugs that are at risk of shortage.

Incentives, Production Capacity

Soto and Carter have also co-sponsored another bill called the Make in America Act so as to ensure drug companies have the necessary profit incentives to set up shop in the United States.

“It would provide 25 to 30 percent tax incentives to boost more domestic manufacturing so that we’re not shipping drugs all the way across from the Pacific or from the Atlantic, so that we’re sourcing more raw materials here,” Soto stated.

The United States does have a sizable spare production capacity according to a study published by the Center for Analytics and Business Insights (CABI) at Washington University in September.

Out of the 37 generic pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in the country, only two were working at full capacity in May and June, the study found.

While 24.3 percent of the facilities polled in the study were found to be utilizing 50 percent or less of their manufacturing capacity, 5.4 percent were found to have been idled.

As of 2020, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry accounted for 48 percent of the global market. The domestic industry netted $550 billion in revenues in 2021. Roughly 4.69 billion prescriptions were dispensed across the country last year.