A bipartisan slate of lawmakers is calling on President Trump to issue an executive order requiring that the government purchase only medical equipment and pharmaceuticals made in the United States.
The small group sent a letter to the White House on Thursday outlining why the lawmakers believe an executive order targeting China would be a good move by the administration. The letter, spearheaded by Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri and Democratic Rep. John Garamendi of California, was co-signed by seven other Republican members of Congress.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a serious vulnerability for both national security and public health,” the letter reads. “There is bipartisan support in Congress for ending our nation’s reliance on China for pharmaceuticals and their ingredients.”
“China is the principal developer of active pharmaceutical ingredients [APIs] for generic prescription drugs, which account for approximately 90 percent of pharmaceuticals used in the United States. Right now, China has the ability to attack the United States without firing a single shot by poisoning our nation’s medicines or cutting off access to the supply,” it adds.
Hartzler described just how many drugs are produced by China during a phone interview with Washington Examiner.
“America quit making aspirin in 2002. We quit making penicillin in 2004, and Chinese pharmaceutical companies now supply over 90% of the antibiotics in the United States, the vitamin C, ibuprofen — they provide 70% of acetaminophen and 40%-45% of the heparin that our country receives. And it just does not make sense to have our military contingent on China, who, through the national defense strategy, we have identified as our primary strategic adversary,” she said.
Earlier this week, Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said in an interview that the White House would soon issue an order to address the issue, although the timing remains unclear. Navarro said the order would mandate that the federal government only purchase medical products made in the U.S. The Washington Examiner has reached out to the White House for further comment.
Navarro also said the coronavirus health crisis has laid bare how the U.S. relies on China for its medical products. Hartzler said she agrees.
“The coronavirus has further shown a light on the vulnerabilities not just for the military but for the entire country,” she said.
Hartzler, who sits with Garamendi on the House Armed Services Committee, said she has seen an upsurge of support for moving pharmaceutical production back to the U.S. given the pandemic.
“We have hearings on a regular basis, many of them classified, where we have been looking at what China is doing and the real threat they pose to our nation,” she said. “People are aware of this and calling [for] action to make us safer in the nation.”
The idea has received blowback from the pharmaceutical industry. A spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told the Washington Examiner that it is “misleading to suggest biopharmaceutical manufacturers are reliant on any one country for any aspect of the manufacturing process.”
She said 28% of active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facilities supplying the U.S. market are in the U.S. that and the Food and Drug Administration has “significant requirements in place” to help ensure the safety of drugs produced overseas.
“While we support efforts to foster more manufacturing in the United States, moving all manufacturing here is impractical and likely not feasible. Policymakers must take a long-term, more holistic look at global pharmaceutical manufacturing supply chains before jumping to rash proposals that may cause significant disruptions to the U.S. supply of medicines,” the spokeswoman said.
Still, Hartzler argued that now is the right time to act because of the pandemic. She pointed out that China recently acknowledged its control over the industry when Beijing said through its state-run news agency that it could impose pharmaceutical export controls that would plunge the U.S. into “the mighty sea of coronavirus.”
“I think during a pandemic is the perfect time to take steps to address the problems that have been exposed as a result of it,” she said, noting that the way the executive order could be worded doesn’t have to express an immediate change because she said such a rapid transition may not be “logistically possible.”
“What it should do is outline the goals and take steps to start that process so that we can reduce our dependence on China and become independent once again and hopefully never have to be in this position in the future,” the congresswoman said.
Hartzler and Garamendi are also sponsoring the Pharmaceutical Independence Long-Term Readiness Reform Act, which was introduced to Congress late last year. The lawmakers hope to have the act included in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Hartzler said that when she and Garamendi learned about the dependency that the U.S. had on China for pharmaceutical products, they decided to take action. The lawmaker said China could fight the U.S. and “win a war” simply by “tainting the pharmaceuticals that they supply to our military or cutting off their supply.” She called the imbalance a “huge vulnerability” to the country’s national security.
Hartzler said the legislation would require the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs to purchase American-made pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and use the Defense Production Act to help make that happen.
The Washington Examiner also reached out to Garamendi’s office for comment.
Although the legislation could be included in the NDAA, Hartzler emphasized that an executive order on the matter would streamline the effort to reduce U.S. pharmaceutical dependence on China.
“It behooves us to take steps to protect our own citizens and have those products made here so that they are available to our families,” Hartzler said.
