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US domestic supply of 150 drugs under threat from coronavirus outbreak

pharmafile | February 25, 2020 | News story | Manufacturing and Production MERS, Sars, US, US Coronavirus, Wuhan Coronavirus, china coronavirus, coronavirus 

Disruption to the US drug production pipeline from the coronavirus could hurt its domestic supply of 150 drugs.

US senators wrote letters to the FDA to express their concern. Senator Chuck Grassley, Senate Finance Committee Chairman, said: “80 percent of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients are produced abroad, the majority in China and India.”

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley wrote that the coronavirus outbreak highlights: “Severe, longstanding and unresolved vulnerabilities in our capacity to produce life-saving pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices for our own citizens.” He also wrote in his letter that “This is unacceptable.”

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88% of the US active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) are manufactured abroad, with around 14% being manufactured in China, with Europe and India making up the bulk of the rest.

It has been reported that 150 drugs are at risk of a shortage if the outbreak continues for an extended period or gets worse. These included branded generics and some branded drugs.

White House Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, told Fox News on Sunday that the US has “offshored far too much of our supply chain for the essential medicines we need. A lot of it’s in China. Some of it’s in India. Some of it’s in Europe. But we’ve got to get that back onshore.”

Conor Kavanagh

 

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