Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, led a fiery hearing on Wednesday, titled “Bad Medicine: Closing Loopholes that Kill American Patients,” where he sounded the alarm on the “severely dangerous overdependence” of the U.S. on foreign-manufactured generic drugs, particularly from Communist China and India.
The hearing is the latest development in the Senator’s ongoing effort to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain, increase patient transparency, and close regulatory loopholes allowing potentially unsafe medications into the U.S. market.
Senator Scott, who previously led a similar aging hearing last month and recently wrote to FDA Commissioner Martin Makary about oversight concerns, argued that this reliance constitutes a grave “national security and a public health issue for seniors and all Americans.”
A Crisis of Dependence
In his introductory remarks, Senator Scott highlighted the dramatic decline in U.S. drug manufacturing, stating that the U.S. now manufactures only 37% of its consumed drugs, a steep drop from 83% in 2002.
“The terrifying reality we face is that our nation is completely beholden to Communist China and India for the vast majority of our generic drugs and their ingredients,” Scott asserted.
He went on to deliver a stark warning, claiming that “people are dying in America today because of bad medicine from unregulated markets in India and Communist China.” To underscore the danger, the Senator recalled the 2007-2008 Heparin tragedy, where contaminated ingredients sourced from China were linked to up to 100 deaths in the U.S.
The committee heard testimony that echoed these fears. Senator Scott quoted former FDA inspector Peter Baker, who allegedly stated he wouldn’t allow himself or his family to take generic drugs made in India or Communist China and “believed that Americans were being killed every day from foreign-made generic drugs.”
Path to Securing the Supply Chain
To combat the threat, Senator Scott outlined several potential solutions, focusing on leveraging the federal government’s purchasing power and enacting trade actions.
The Senator argued that since the federal government is the largest purchaser of drugs in the U.S., its buying power “can move the needle and bring manufacturing for essential drugs back to the United States.” He suggested starting with critical drugs like antibiotics, where Communist China supplies 90% of the ingredients globally.
Furthermore, Scott is urging Commerce Secretary Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Greer to take aggressive trade action. The Senator recently sent a letter encouraging them to immediately consider a Section 232 investigation and tariffs on foreign-made generic drugs.
“Section 232 tariffs are for goods that impact our national security, and I can’t think of anything more critical to the health of our seniors than generic drugs,” Scott stated, emphasizing that such action would help level the playing field for American manufacturers.
Scott concluded the hearing by stressing the urgency of the matter: “I look forward to this discussion with our witnesses on how we can make sure Americans never have to worry about missing a dose of their medication or the quality of drugs in their medicine cabinet.”
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