In an “historic turning point,” the Trump administration has taken bold action to bring America’s pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the U.S. from China and India.
“Seeking to secure the nation’s supply of critical medications, the Trump administration has signed a $354 million contract that would create the nation’s first strategic stockpile of key ingredients needed to make medicines,” NBC News reported. “The agreement was signed Monday with Phlow Corp., a generic drug maker based in Virginia.”
White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, a staunch China hawk who is the mastermind behind President Donald Trump’s trade war with the communist nation, said that the move “will not only help bring our essential medicines home but actually do so in a way that is cost competitive with the sweatshops and pollution havens of the world.”
Navarro added, “This is an historic turning point in America’s efforts to onshore its pharmaceutical production and supply chains.”
The New York Times reported that the company could see the contract “extended for a total of $812 million over 10 years, making it one of the largest awards in” the history of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Dr. Eric Edwards, the chief executive and president of Phlow, said in an interview with The New York Times, “There are not a lot of people wanting to bring back generic medicine manufacturing to the United States that has been lost to India and China over decades. You need someone like the federal government saying this is too important for us not to focus on.”
On its website, Phlow Corp bills itself as an America First company. “The United States’ drug supply chain is broken, becoming dangerously dependent upon Foreign Suppliers for our most essential generic medicines,” the website reads. “Phlow was formed to manufacture low-cost, high quality, essential generic drugs for the United States.”
HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that the move was “a significant step to rebuild our domestic ability to protect ourselves from health threats.”
“Phlow plans to make drugs via a technique called ‘continuous manufacturing,’ widespread in other industries but still novel for pharmaceutical companies,” Forbes reported. “Continuous manufacturing involves nonstop production within the same facility, which can save time and more quickly respond to drug shortages, though this can increase upfront costs.”
The move comes as the U.S. and other countries around the world have realized in recent months that they cannot depend on China to be a reliable manufacturer of products that are critical to the U.S. supply chain, including medicines, due to China’s lies and cover-up that of the coronavirus pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China.
Trump announced late on Monday evening that the U.S. would make its suspension of funding the World Health Organization permanent, and would even consider leaving, if “major” immediate changes were not made.
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