By: Dr. Jianli Yang
In the vast machinery that keeps the U.S. healthy, one of the most essential yet overlooked systems is the pharmaceutical supply chain. From everyday painkillers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen to critical antibiotics and chemotherapy agents, the medications Americans depend on are increasingly sourced abroad — especially from China.
Although the efficiencies of globalized production have driven down costs, they have also introduced serious risks: dependency, diminished oversight and questionable product quality.
Much of the public concern has focused on finished drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients. But the deeper vulnerability lies even further upstream. Many of the chemical building blocks that make modern medicine possible — reagents, solvents and key starting materials — are now overwhelmingly produced in China. These raw materials are essential for synthesizing active pharmaceutical ingredients, and in many cases, they have no viable substitute outside China.
China’s dominance is evident in hard numbers. According to U.S. trade data, 95 percent of U.S. ibuprofen imports, 91 percent of hydrocortisone, 70 percent of acetaminophen and up to 45 percent of penicillin come from China. Yet the more dangerous dependency may be indirect. India, for example, supplies the majority of generic drugs to the United States. But India itself imports nearly 70 percent of its active pharmaceutical ingredients from China. That means many of the drugs labeled “Made in India” are, in practice, deeply reliant on Chinese upstream supply.
Source: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5465101-us-drug-dependency-china/