Can We Make the Antibiotics and Vaccines We May Need?

Source of the Graph: "Brief on the Global Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries," Jason Matheny, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pitsburgh Medical Center, January 15, 2007

Source article: "Drug Making’s Move Abroad Stirs Concerns," GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times, January 19, 2009.

Apparently the key ingredients in most pharmaceuticals available in the United States are manufactured abroad. Pills may be pressed and packaged in the United States, but are made from imported ingredients. If there is ever a major need for antibiotics, the domestic industry might need a couple of years to tool up to produce them.

Excerpts from the story:

Of the 1,154 pharmaceutical plants mentioned in generic drug applications to the Food and Drug Administration in 2007, only 13 percent were in the United States. Forty-three percent were in China, and 39 percent were in India.....

Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla, one of the world’s most important suppliers of pharmaceutical ingredients, says his company and others have grown increasingly dependent on Chinese suppliers. “If tomorrow China stopped supplying pharmaceutical ingredients, the worldwide pharmaceutical industry would collapse,” he said.......

One federal database lists nearly 3,000 overseas drug plants that export to the United States; the other lists 6,800 plants. Nobody knows which is right.

Comment: The FDA does not do much of a job testing materials crossing U.S. borders, so I hope that the firms themselves verify that the ingredients that they are importing and incorporating into their products are safe and efficacious.

So why is it that Big Pharma is arguing that we can't import drugs from Canada. Apparently many of these drugs are made in the United States from ingredients made in China and India and exported to Canada.

Clearly firms will seek to maximize profits by buying their supplies from the lest costly source. Our trade treaty obligations require that the government not subsidize domestic producers to compete internationally, but that rule applies to the Chinese and Indian governments as well, and if necessary the U.S. government can take action.

However, it seems to me that there are strategic resources including vaccines and antibiotics for which a nation should guarantee the access for its people. I think it more important to have the productive capacity than a stockpile.

There must be a way. JAD

Source of the Graph: "Brief on the Global Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries," Jason Matheny, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pitsburgh Medical Center, January 15, 2007