Drug manufacturing outsourcing causes concerns
When numerous pharmaceutical companies across the US have started closing down their plants and transferring the production of many crucial drugs and their components abroad, few were concerned with national security. The primary concern back then was job loss and social security.
But today more and more experts and authorities start looking at the problem form a different point of view. Depending on drugs manufactured overseas is a risk that the national security just cannot take. Thus there are more frequent calls to design a law that would assure some essential drugs to be manufactured in the US.
Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, states that this is a very weak spot for the national defense, leaving many opportunities for biological terrorisms and other risks.
A few decades ago, the majority of drugs bought and taken in the United States were produced within the borders of the country. But as with many other large-scale production operations, the manufacturing of of drugs was moved to Asia due to the considerably lower costs, allowing manufacturers to maximize their profits.
The main ingredients for most essential drugs like antibiotics and painkillers are now manufactured only in China and India. So don’t be surprised to find out that the Zithromax you give your child for an ear infection has a “made in China” label.
Amongst the 1,154 productions manufacturing drugs that are noted in generic medication applications to the FDA in 2007, only 13 percent were located in the United States was only 13 percent. 43 percent of the plants were registered in China, and 39 percent in India.
The whole healthcare system of the United States relies upon drugs, which are manufactured in developing countries that have no strict environmental or hygienic regulations. And this of course makes the United States a lot more vulnerable to external influences.
Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla, one of the biggest suppliers of medical ingredients in the whole world, tells that his company and other major pharmaceutical businesses have become very dependent on Chinese suppliers. It is to the extend that if in one day China will suddenly stops suppling pharmaceutical ingredients, the entire global drug-manufacturing industry would be completely destroyed the same day.
The problem is far more serious because the sources for the ingredients, which the Chinese and Indian manufacturers use in their production are unclear. Officially it is kept as a secret, but the fact is that even after the public listing of master files required by the FDA, the most part of the presented data was inaccurate or out of date, because the is no strict requirement for the manufacturers to list their suppliers.
The number of overseas drug plants in one federal database is about 3,000 businesses. Another database has 6,800 entries. And there’s no clear explanation of which one is correct.
In this situation, China becomes a very significant element for the national security for the US. And if the Chinese authorities become upset with President Obama it is not hard to imagine how devastating the consequences might be.
source