Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) has penned an op-ed regarding a national drug shortage. The United States has faced several shortages in the last few years, and a national drug shortage would further strain the lives of Americans. To combat this, Rubio argues that the U.S. needs to develop stronger medical supply chains.
In the op-ed for the Washington Times, Rubio poses, “if we get to dire straits, how are we going to ration cancer care to patients?” The reason for this is because “medication for breast cancer and leukemia, adenosine used to treat heart disease, and critical antibiotics are all in short supply.”
Given that the U.S. is “the world’s greatest economy,” Rubio laments that “America increasingly looks less like the center of global innovation and more like a civilization in decline.”
While the “stores haven’t run dry just yet… the shortages are already leaving a mark,” Rubio warns, explaining that “the American Cancer Society and the Society of Gynecologist Oncology have issued dark warnings of ‘worse outcomes’ for future patients.”
How we got here, Rubio attributes to a “core problem,” defining it as “our leaders spent decades encouraging the industry to consolidate and offshore. They told us that this was an unavoidable outcome of globalization and that the jobs lost by Americans would be more than offset by greater economic efficiency and lower consumer cost.” However, “they were wrong.”
By not addressing the problem, Rubio argues that the U.S. would be leaving “our sick and older people at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party and fragile international supply chains that could break in an instant.”
To begin responding to the fatal concern, he calls on lawmakers to pass the Ensuring Timely Access to Generics Act, a bipartisan bill, as well as repealing the Inflation Reduction Act because of its “deadly price controls.”
