Senators Warren & Smith Re-Introduce Bill to Boost American Pharmaceutical

United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith are reintroducing the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Defense and Enhancement Act comprehensive legislation. That takes steps to reinvigorate the United States manufacturing capacity and end the nation’s reliance on foreign countries for critical drugs used by millions of Americans.

Elizabeth Warren, Senator said that to defeat the current crisis and better equip the United States against future pandemics, we must boost our country’s manufacturing capacity. The Pharmaceutical bill will end our overreliance on foreign countries and give us the tools we need to produce the critical drugs that millions of Americans depend on here at home.

Senator Smith said that the country must be ready to produce the medicine that Americans need here on U.S. soil. This is an issue of public health and national security. Senator Smith is glad to work with Senator Warren to strengthen our country’s capacity to manufacture critical drugs. This will help lessen our over-reliance on other countries and make sure Americans can get the drugs they need.

The United States imports nearly 80% of the active Pharmaceutical ingredients, the requisite component of drugs, used in generic drugs that millions of Americans rely on. This overreliance is alarming national security and public health risk. Foreign manufacturers could restrict or completely cut off the supply of Pharmaceutical products during a period of heightened geopolitical tensions or after a natural disaster.

Rosemary Gibson, author of China Rx and Chair of the Coalition for a Prosperous America Healthcare Committee said that the pandemic revealed serious vulnerabilities in U.S. supply chains and made clear that we must combat America’s dependence on foreign nations for essential generic drugs, antibiotics, vaccines, PPE, and other critical health care products.