WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats urged the Trump administration Wednesday to limit imports of generic pharmaceuticals from China to the United States, for the sake of national security.
The Senate Aging Committee recently condemned the Food and Drug Administration and manufacturers for keeping Americans in the dark about where their drugs were originally manufactured, in many cases, China and India. On Wednesday, senators honed in on the sheer amount of key pharmaceutical ingredients that China sends to the U.S.
China has a “pharma death grip” on the U.S., said witness and author Gordon Chang. The country controls around 90% of key starting materials to make active pharmaceutical ingredients and generics.
Witness and author Rosemary Gibson said stopping these exports would literally be fatal.
“A lot of people would die in this country,” Gibson said. “Our health care systems would cease to function. Yeah, if China wanted to spread infectious disease, we would not have the tools to be able to treat people.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fl., pushed for the Department of Commerce to investigate if certain imports threaten national security, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. If so, the president would be allowed to impose tariffs, quotas or other restrictions on those imports and reduce drug sales from China.
“Section 232 tariffs are very important in that regard,” Chang said. “Other tariffs are also possible.”
Ultimately, bringing back domestic production is key, Chang said. He said China has been able to outmaneuver the FDA because of its monopoly on all parts of the chain, and to do that, the U.S. needs to break it.
“China developed this monopoly. We can take it back, but we’ve got to know that within two or three years there is a period of extreme vulnerability,” Chang said.
Democrats did not dispute the core problem of U.S. dependence on foreign drug supply chains, but said the issue reflects broader market failures in the domestic pharmaceutical system, not simply a geopolitical issue with China.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, pointed to structural reasons between the two countries, such as China’s government subsidies, weaker environment rules and cheaper labor. She urged Congress to empower the FDA to conduct rigorous oversight and make sure foreign manufacturers comply with U.S. safety standards.
Stronger FDA oversight and policies would encourage manufacturing in the U.S. and its allies, Gillibrand said. She voiced support for “friend-shoring sourcing,” which means moving production to trusted allies, in addition to moving production back into American territory.
“While the United States does not need to replicate the steps that the Chinese government has taken exactly, we have to realize that China is moving at a much faster pace than we are,” Gillibrand said. “The United States has been the standard bearer for clinical innovation for decades. It would be a detriment to our global leadership if we let China surpass us in innovation.”