https://issuesinsights.com/2022/04/12/americas-reliance-on-china-for-pharmaceuticals-could-result-in-ukraine-like-drug-shortages/
Immediately following Russia’s unprovoked invasion, hospitals and pharmacies across Ukraine witnessed a severe interruption in the drug supply chain. Pharmacies were looted and shelves were quickly emptied with no replenishment in sight. In just a few days, the profound benefits of a century’s worth of modern pharmaceutical development were nullified, with lifesaving drugs for heart disease, high blood pressure, infections, diabetes, cancer, and innumerable other conditions suddenly unavailable.
Americans who think that such shortages could never happen here should think again. In fact, we are already experiencing them. University of Chicago researchers in 2018 surveyed 719 pharmacists at large and small hospitals across the country and found that all of them reported experiencing at least one drug shortage over the previous year, and 69% had experienced at least 50 shortages in that time. The majority were generic injectable pharmaceuticals commonly used in hospitals, including analgesics, cancer drugs, anesthetics, antipsychotics for psychiatric emergencies, and electrolyte solutions needed for patients on IV supplementation. According to the Food and Drug Administration, there are currently shortages of 120 drugs, many of them commonly used and critically important.
One of the reasons is that we, like Ukraine, are at the mercy of foreign sources for our pharmaceutical supply. China has become the world’s largest producer and exporter of the essential “active pharmaceutical ingredients” (APIs) used in the manufacture of drugs in many countries, including the United States. According to the World Health Organization, 36% of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants are government owned, and that figure roughly doubles when calculated on facility square footage rather than facility numbers. Even India, a dominant manufacturer of generic drugs, is dependent on China for its APIs.
