During a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on Wednesday, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) delivered a sharp critique of the United States’ heavy reliance on China for essential prescription medications.
Addressing the committee, Scott claimed that “politicians in both parties chose cheap over safe” for the last 30 years, allowing a foreign adversary to gain “sole control” over the building blocks of the American medicine supply.
The hearing served as the culmination of a six-month investigation by the committee into drug supply chain vulnerabilities. According to data cited by Scott during the session, domestic drug production has collapsed over the last two decades.
In 2002, U.S.-based production accounted for 84% of the domestic market; today, that number has fallen to 37%. More strikingly, Scott noted that 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for essential medicines now have no U.S. source at all.
“I’m not just talking about a few medicines,” Scott told the committee. “I’m talking about our antibiotics, our diabetes drugs, our blood pressure medications—essential life-saving medicines found in every hospital, every pharmacy, and every medicine cabinet in this country.”
The Senator argued that this shift was not accidental but the result of deliberate policy decisions and regulatory barriers that pushed manufacturing overseas. He pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a “warning,” recalling how 37 Chinese factories producing ingredients for U.S. drugs shut down, leading to domestic shortages of sedatives and cancer treatments.
Scott stated that during the crisis, the Chinese government “decided which countries got life-saving drugs based on politics.”
In response to these findings, Scott highlighted legislative efforts to address the issue, including the “Clear Labels Act,” introduced in January alongside Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The bill aims to provide transparency so patients know exactly where their medications are manufactured.
Scott concluded his remarks by urging his colleagues to move beyond identifying the problem and toward enacting structural reforms.
“If we just sit here, hold this hearing, thank our witnesses, and go home without acting, it will happen again,” Scott warned. “But worse.”
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