OPINION:
For decades, the United States has quietly offshored its pharmaceutical supply chain to pursue lower costs in nations such as China and India. I discussed this at length recently on “The Matt Gaetz Show” on One America News.
Today, we are waking up to the consequences: unsafe drugs, compromised quality standards and national security risks that could cripple our health care system in a time of crisis.
This problem presents a massive opportunity for President Trump’s “America First” agenda. If we make the right investments, we can reclaim our medical sovereignty and create tens of thousands of well-paying American jobs. The future of medicine should be made in America, and the time to start building that future is now.
As a former researcher funded by the National Institutes of Health, I’ve seen how foreign labs, especially in China, cut corners to maximize profits. In the above-referenced interview, I exposed how some Chinese manufacturers use alternative animal parts to synthetically mimic active ingredients in prescription drugs, all to shave down costs and skirt U.S. quality controls. One of the most egregious examples of this was in 2007 when a Chinese manufacturer was found to have created a semisynthetic version of heparin, a lifesaving anticoagulant created from pig intestines, using animal cartilage instead, simply because it was 100 times cheaper to do so. The result was widespread deaths of Americans because of allergic reactions and a lack of proper medicinal activity of this synthetic version of heparin.
China does not have the same standards or value system as the United States, and that problem will never be fixed. China’s goal isn’t health; it’s scale and speed. The result is a flood of pills that technically pass inspection but are rooted in deception, and Americans are the ones taking the risk.
This isn’t an isolated incident. It’s a systemic failure rooted in our dependence on adversarial nations for something as vital as our medicine. More than 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in the drugs Americans take are manufactured overseas, primarily in China.
That means Beijing could threaten our medicine supply chain at any moment. China is willing to game our regulatory system and prioritize profit over people.
Here’s the good news: We don’t have to accept this dangerous status quo. We can reverse course. In fact, reshoring pharmaceutical manufacturing is one of the smartest, most future-forward investments our country can make for our national security, public health and economy.
Imagine what a nationwide initiative to build domestic pharmaceutical infrastructure could mean for the American workforce. We could create tens of thousands of well-paying jobs in every corner of the country for biotechnology engineers, factory workers, chemical analysts and logistics professionals. This isn’t a pipe dream; it’s the kind of industrial revival that built America in the first place and the kind of bold vision we need today.
Think of the precedent: During World War II, America transformed its manufacturing sector overnight to become the arsenal of democracy. Now, we must become the pharmacy of freedom. A national effort to repatriate drug manufacturing would protect Americans from supply chain disruptions, lift entire communities, revive our industrial base and restore dignity to our labor force.
We can do this, but it will require leadership and investment.
Here’s how we start:
• Launch a national initiative to build pharmaceutical hubs in strategic regions across America. Partner with state governments and the private sector to turn shuttered plants and empty warehouses into state-of-the-art production facilities.
• Create powerful tax incentives and federal grants to reward companies that commit to sourcing and manufacturing 100% of their active pharmaceutical ingredients and drugs within the United States.
• Mandate transparency and labeling so that American consumers know exactly where their medicines are coming from and can choose to support the U.S.-made drugs over imported alternatives.
• Invest in workforce development programs that train the next generation of pharmaceutical workers, especially in communities hit hardest by the opioid crisis, automation and offshoring. Mandate that only American-born workers can be employed at these companies, not foreign-born workers or those on foreign visas.
• Establish a long-term strategic reserve of essential medicines, produced and stockpiled domestically, to protect against pandemics, wars or natural disasters.
The benefits of this approach are obvious: secure supply chains, higher safety standards and more jobs for Americans. There’s also a cultural and moral dimension. When we outsource our health care infrastructure to adversarial regimes, we lose more than control. We lose accountability, trust and national pride. By contrast, when Americans make medicines for Americans, we reintroduce a sacred sense of duty into our health care system rooted in care, quality and conscience.
This is more than a policy debate. It’s a defining choice for our generation. Do we continue to rely on nations such as China that have proved time and again that they will exploit our systems for something as sacred as our medicine, or do we rise to the moment and rebuild a domestic pharmaceutical industry that is safe, transparent and American-made?
If we choose the latter, we won’t just safeguard our nation’s health. We will create a powerful new engine of economic opportunity for American workers and families. We will lead the world in science and manufacturing again and prove that when the stakes are high, America still knows how to bet on itself and win.
It’s time to bring our medicine home, it’s time to invest in American manufacturing, and it’s time to put American workers back at the heart of our health care system.
• Isaiah Hankel is the CEO of Overqualified.com and a three-time bestselling author.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.