Drugs

Report on Ways to Cut Reliance on Foreign Drugs

The Senate Special Committee on Aging has released a report, “Protecting Seniors’ Access to Essential Medications: Securing the Foreign Generic Pharmaceutical Supply Chain,” focused on what it calls America’s dangerous overreliance on foreign-made generic drugs, which are largely imported from China and India. A committee statement (includes a link to the full report) says the report’s highlights are:

in 2024, the U.S. manufactured 37% of its consumer pharmaceuticals, down from 83% in 2002;
China accounts for 95% of U.S. imports of ibuprofen, 70% of U.S. imports of acetaminophen, and up to 45% of U.S. imports of penicillin;
some 90% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for global antibiotics are of Chinese origin, and 83% of the top 100 generic drugs consumed by U.S. citizens have no U.S.-based source of APIs;
while India supplies about half of all generic drugs used in the U.S., Indian manufacturers rely on China for about 60% of the APIs they use; and
according to a 2025 study, the occurrence of serious adverse events (hospitalizations, disabilities, and death) for generic drugs manufactured in India was 54% higher than for equivalent drugs that were manufactured in the U.S.

The committee report makes these recommendations:

establish a federal buyer’s market for essential medicines, prioritizing American-made products first, and prioritizing near- and friend-shoring if American-made products are not available;
map our generic drug supply chains;
require companies to disclose the country of origin for finished pharmaceuticals;
utilize trade levers like the administration’s Trade Expansion Act of 1962 Section 232 investigation authority, under which the Department of Commerce can investigate whether imports of certain goods threaten to impair national security;
pass clarifying language to close loopholes that allow foreign-made products to be categorized as ‘Made in America’; and
support U.S. biotechnology.

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