Three members of the Senate Aging Committee introduced a bipartisan bill on Wednesday aimed at investigating foreign investment and control within the United States pharmaceutical supply chain.
The legislation, titled the Pharmaceutical Investment Oversight and Accountability Act, was introduced by Committee Chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
If passed, the bill would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), working alongside the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), to submit an annual report to Congress analyzing foreign influence over domestic drug manufacturing and sensitive biomedical technologies, including DNA sequencing and storage.
The introduction comes ahead of a committee hearing titled “Behind the Label: Foreign Ownership and Control in America’s Drug Supply Chain,” which focuses on how reliance on overseas production impacts access to medication for older Americans. The move follows an October 2025 investigative report by Scott and Gillibrand regarding the U.S. generic drug supply chain, as well as their January 2026 introduction of the CLEAR LABELS Act, which seeks to add country-of-origin labeling requirements to prescription drugs.
“America has let the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign entities quietly buy their way into our drug supply for too long, and it needs to end,” Scott said in a statement. “Everything from manufacturing and ingredient suppliers to genomic sequencing technology is at stake. Washington has looked the other way for too long, and the truth is we don’t even know the full extent of how bad it is. That’s why I’m proud to be working together to bring greater transparency on the full scope off foreign influence and control in America’s pharmaceutical supply chain. Protecting American medicine from foreign control is a national security priority, and we need to act like it.”
Under the proposed law, the FTC would be required to deliver its first report within one year of enactment, with subsequent updates filed annually. The review must evaluate how concentration and reliance on foreign manufacturing affect domestic capacity to produce active and inactive drug ingredients. It would also track the previous ten years of federal reviews and investigations into foreign transactions involving U.S. pharmaceutical companies or DNA sequencing technologies.
“Americans’ access to lifesaving medication should not rely on supply chains controlled by foreign countries,” Gillibrand said. “The Pharmaceutical Investment Oversight and Accountability Act would help shine a light on foreign influence in our drug supply chain and bring overdue transparency to the public health and national security threats posed by overreliance on foreign capital and manufacturing. As the top Democrat on the Senate Aging Committee, I will keep fighting to build better oversight tools to address modern supply chain risks and make sure every American has access to the medicines they need.”
The bill directs the FTC to use its existing authority under Section 6 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to conduct the necessary studies. An unclassified summary of the findings would be published online for the public.
“For years, I’ve sounded the alarm that our dependence on foreign-made pharmaceuticals puts Americans at risk,” Warren said. “Securing this investigation is the first step in strengthening our drug supply chains and ensuring Americans always have access to life-saving medicine.”
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