Chairman Rick Scott of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging has drawn national attention for a new investigative report co-authored with Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand. The report, titled “Protecting Seniors’ Access to Essential Medications: Securing the Foreign Generic Pharmaceutical Supply Chain,” examines the United States’ dependence on foreign-manufactured generic drugs, particularly those imported from India and China.
The committee’s work aims to improve oversight of generic drug safety, reduce prescription costs, and ensure that seniors have access to safe and affordable medications produced in the United States. Chairman Scott previously discussed these concerns in an op-ed for The Hill.
Public figures and organizations have commented on the findings and recommendations of the report. Maria Bartiromo, host of Mornings with Maria on Fox Business, said, “Why are we so reliant on Communist China for our prescription drugs? The fact that we only make what 8% of antibiotics in this country, I mean, that’s criminal…there’s a dereliction of duty…get your supply chains to America, this is a national security issue.”
Retired Army Col. Vic Suarez told ProPublica, “If these recommendations are put into action, then it really resets the table of the health care system in the United States. When you combine all the federal agencies to do this in one aligned acquisitions strategy, it just has a really exponential impact that we’ve never seen before.”
According to The Floridian, “The hearing is a part of a movement by the Senate committee to protect vulnerable Americans by moving pharmaceutical manufacturing to the U.S. and eliminating weaknesses in the current drug supply system, along with dangerous loopholes that compromise drug safety and accessibility.”
Tony Paquin, chief executive officer of iRemedy Healthcare stated: “Foreign dependence for critical medical products is not just a supply chain risk, it’s a national security threat. We must secure our ability to care for own people.”
Andrew Rechenberg from Coalition for a Prosperous America said: “America’s medicine supply chain is in a crisis. Two decades of offshoring have caused domestic pharmaceutical production to fall from 84% of the U.S. market in 2002 to just 37% today. Leaving 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients with no U.S. source whatsoever. India and China have captured the market by undercutting American producers.”
McKnights Long-Term Care News reported: “A new investigative report released by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rick Scott (R-FL), ranking member and chairman of the US Senate Special Committee on Aging respectively details the United States’ overdependence on foreign-made generic drugs. It argues that the country needs to take certain regulatory and economic steps to combat this. Pharmaceuticals manufactured in the US have dropped by 46% since 2002… Also about 90% of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for global antibiotics come from China and 83% of top 100 generic drugs consumed by US citizens have no US-based source of APIs.”
Key findings from the report include that as recently as 2024 only about 37% of pharmaceuticals consumed domestically were made within U.S., down sharply from over four-fifths two decades earlier; nearly all ibuprofen imports (95%) come from China; roughly half of all generics used domestically are supplied by India but Indian manufacturers depend heavily on Chinese APIs; serious adverse events related to Indian-made generics were found significantly higher than those made domestically.
To address these vulnerabilities, bipartisan policy proposals include creating a federal buyer’s market prioritizing American-made medicines first; mapping out supply chains; requiring disclosure about countries where finished pharmaceuticals originate; using trade measures such as Section 232 investigations; closing loopholes around labeling foreign products as ‘Made in America’; and supporting domestic biotechnology development.
The full text of both the report and recent hearings are available online.
