Pharmaceutical Blackout: The Hidden Threat to U.S. Security

By BENS Member Stuart Glickman and BENS President & CEO Gen. Tim Ray (Ret.), published in RealClearDefense. All rights reserved.

“The stakes are clear: Americans’ health hangs on economically unstable supply chains that are concentrated overseas. Rebuilding domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing is not just an economic issue but a national security imperative.”

Imagine a crisis where U.S. citizens are abruptly cut off from lifesaving medications. Pharmacy shelves are empty. And medicine cabinets lay bare. This isn’t a far-fetched dystopia. It’s a real and growing threat. Generic drugs, which make up nearly 90% of U.S. prescriptions, depend on Chinese and Indian manufacturing for active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), finished dosage forms, or both. In the event of a possible – if not probable – trade war or geopolitical rupture, these supply chains could be severed; leaving Americans vulnerable to “pharmacological blackouts.”

Senators in June reintroduced the bipartisan RAPID Reserve Act, a legislative lifeline designed to prevent a pharmacological blackout. And as Congress reconvenes in the coming weeks, policy makers should not only advance RAPID’s call to bring critical medicine manufacturing back to U.S. shores and build strategic reserves, they should go further…

To address this urgent need, the U.S. government must take the following action…