Coronavirus: US dependence on China for pharmaceutical ingredients will hinder outbreak response, lawmakers are told
- Capitol Hill hearing comes only days after the Trump administration proposes sweeping cuts to public health agencies and scientific research
- Other vulnerabilities in the supply chain could affect the flow of gloves, masks and materials used in patient isolation, former CDC director says
The United States’ ability to respond to an epidemic within its borders is critically hampered by its reliance on China for pharmaceutical products and insufficient funding for preparedness, former health officials warned on Wednesday.
US drug companies rely heavily on China as a supplier of raw materials that go into the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), said Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“In many cases China is the sole source of that material,” Gottlieb, who led the FDA for two years under Trump, said during a hearing on Capitol Hill.
At a time when China would be focusing its production on domestic demand rather than international export, and amid wide scale disruption to industry across the country caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Gottlieb said the contagion had exposed “a critical choke point in the supply chain for pharmaceuticals”.