Letter to Donald Trump, President of the United States of America - Hartzler Demands Action on Made-In-China Pharmaceuticals

Letter

Dear President Trump:

We are writing to you today to express our strong support for bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing and its supply chain back to the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a serious vulnerability for both national security and public health. There is bipartisan support in Congress for ending our nation's reliance on China for pharmaceuticals and their ingredients.

As you know, 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. China's chokehold on the global pharmaceutical market leaves our nation vulnerable to attack. If the Chinese government tomorrow decided to halt its pharmaceutical supply chain and slam the brakes on the production of critical ingredients that go into medications, considerable damage would be done to the health of our nation. We have essentially allowed the Chinese to weaponize their pharmaceutical industry against the United States.

Not only does our current dependency on China highlight a massive vulnerability for our nation and open the possibility of a deliberate manipulation of its medical supply, but the Chinese government's lack of proper oversight and regulatory standards on prescription drugs is also deeply problematic. For example, Heparin is a blood thinner used by doctors before surgical procedures or prescribed to help manage blood clots. However, many people who used the drug told their doctors that they experienced a severe reaction. After testing by the Food and Drug Administration, the cases of negative reactions were traced to tainted biologic ingredients produced in China, which led the recall of heparin in 2008. This contamination was linked to 246 deaths in the United States.

We are encouraged to hear reports of a draft executive order, which would require the federal government to only purchase American-made essential medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. There are several bipartisan proposals pending before Congress to address our nation's reliance on China, such as our bill H.R. 4710, the Pharmaceutical Independence Long-Term Readiness Reform Act. This proposal and others demonstrate that executive action on this issue will be met with bipartisan support. Reinvigorating the United States industrial base to produce medications domestically would create thousands of new middle-class jobs, make our country safer, and ensure we have the capacity to respond to future public health emergencies.

As your Administration considers the appropriate time to issue an executive order to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States, please know there is bipartisan support for ending China's chokehold on the global supply chain. We stand ready to work with you on this important issue.