From CNBC:
White House preparing executive order requiring certain essential drugs be made in U.S., sources say
The White House is preparing an executive order which will require certain essential drugs be made in the U.S., two sources familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday.
The executive order Navarro is planning will streamline regulatory approvals for “American-made” products and look to impose similar FDA restrictions on U.S. facilities as those abroad. It will also encourage the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Veterans Affairs, to only buy American-made medical products.
This is awesome.
If Congress can mandate that Medicare and Medicaid prioritize American made pharmaceuticals then you will watch the pharmaceutical industry in the US explode in growth and R&D.
If the US government is paying for drugs with my tax dollars, they should be made in the US by American workers.
I think a better answer would be to announce a 50% tariff on all China-made medical products starting in 90 days, rising to 100% in 180 days. The tariff to apply also to the Chinese component of any medical products with a more than 5% Chinese content.
That would create a substantial financial incentive to do the right thing. It would also be politically attractive, so harder to reverse
When this thing first started, someone suggested (maybe here, I wanna say) that Trump do this while also giving incentives to set up the pharma factories in Puerto Rico to help lift them out of poverty.
I don’t know if I’d want the factories *only* in PR, but otherwise it’s something I can get behind.
PR already has piles of financial incentives. That has caused some factories to appear there; a computer company I used to work for had a bunch. But incentives can only outweigh the bad effects of a corrupt and idiotic local government up to a point.
What might work is for the US to assert its Constitutional authority to run PR, eliminating the local so-called government institutions.
Not to mention that PR gets wiped out by hurricanes every couple of years or so.
So? The Gulf states are just as vulnerable, but since they are adequately governed that isn’t a problem.
according to wikipedia:
The pharmaceutical industry in Puerto Rico encompasses more than half of all manufacturing done in Puerto Rico. As the island’s most prominent industry, pharmaceutics generates more than 18,000 jobs, pays more than US$3 billion in taxes, comprises about half of total exports, and has generated more than 25% of the island’s GDP for the past four decades.[1] Comparatively, Puerto Rico is the fifth largest area in the world for pharmaceutical manufacturing with more than 80 plants, including:
Pharmaceutical companies originally came to Puerto Rico in the late 1960s and 1970s to take advantage of the now-expired federal tax incentive known as Section 936. This incentive allowed U.S.-based manufacturers to send all profits from local plants to stateside parent plants without having to pay any federal taxes.
Several developments in the market, however, pose a challenge to the industry. These challenges include expired patents, cheaper manufacturers (such as those in Brazil, China, India, and South Korea), the rise of generic drugs, and high production costs.[1]
In terms of market share, as of 2014, Puerto Rico produces sixteen of the top twenty selling drugs in the mainland United States.[2]