Florida Senator Rick Scott (R) recently led a U.S. Senate Special Committee on how to combat the crucial vulnerabilities in the American pharmaceuticals industry and how to reduce America’s over-reliance on foreign-made generic drugs.
Sen. Scott welcomed health experts Tony Sardella, Tony Paquin, and Andrew Rechenberg to testify on potential avenues to bolster domestic generic drug manufacturing, enhance transparency throughout the supply chain, mandate clear country-of-origin labeling, and close harmful loopholes.
Florida Senator Ashley Moody (R) was also in attendance for the Senate Committee’s discussion, where she questioned Sardella on whether consumers are aware of the origins of the medications they are taking.
“At this point, are consumers ever informed where the main ingredients and the drugs that they are taking are manufactured?” Moody questioned.
“Very unlikely. There’s no transparency. This is a very interesting concept. This is an industry like any other supply chain. Any other supply chain you can look at and understand where the product comes from, and where it’s sourced. Not our pharmaceuticals,” Sardella responded.
Alabama Senator Tom Tuberville (R) questioned what changes must be made to ensure a level playing field.
“What changes do you think we need to make to have Oxford and other companies on a level playing field? What do we need to do?” Tuberville pressed.
“I think there are really two immediate actions we could be looking at: quotas based on the marketplace, and not allowing a country like India to overwhelm our supply, thereby driving down the value of those drugs," Paquin explained. "And secondly, the VA and the U.S. government should really prioritize domestic manufacturing over foreign manufacturing, and that is something that can be done without any major additional cost to the government and is not happening currently.”
Rechenburger emphasized the risks of how the U.S. overreliance on these drugs is putting American seniors at risk.
“America’s medicine supply chain is in a crisis. Two decades of offshoring have caused domestic pharmaceutical production to fall from 84% of the U.S. market in 2002 to just 37% today. Leaving 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients with no U.S. source, whatsoever. India and China have captured the market by undercutting American producers,” he said.
