COVID-19 Underscores Need for Drug Manufacturing to Return to U.S. Shores

SUGAR LAND--March 17, 2020--Written by Annette Kreuger - VP Pharma-Bio Group (Sugar Land, Texas)--As the globe struggles to understand and combat the COVID-19 coronavirus, it is sometimes difficult to discern fact from rumor. Yet one fact is becoming quite clear. Entirely too much of the U.S.' drug supply relies on the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and generic drug products from distant countries like China or India. This has occurred for a number of reasons, but mainly financial ones. Drug companies could save money on production, as well as focus on advanced drug products that are still under patent protection. The bulk of what is manufactured overseas are pharmaceuticals (i.e antibiotics), not the complex biologics such as cellular and genetic therapies.