What if China weaponizes its dominance of pharma inputs?

Overdependence on China for drug-making should worry the US

- JULIANA LIU

The US could use India's help for pharma supply chain resilience.

(REUTERS)

The US and China may have called a truce on trade, but Beijing has other levers to pull should febrile relations deteriorate again. That's a potential supply-chain chokepoint that Washington has overlooked: its strategic rival's tight grip on the raw materials needed to make an array of medicines.

The urgency of tackling pharmaceutical supplies lies at the heart of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report, published last week. It proposed that Congress immediately amend a 2020 law to expand the authority of the US Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require pharmaceutical firms to report the volume and origin of the building blocks of modern drugs. It also asked the regulator to encourage the use of supplies from non-Chinese sources.

It wasn’t the first time the body has brought up the issue. However, the speed with which the US essentially folded after Beijing expanded export controls on crucial rare earth minerals last month is a sign that this other glaring vulnerability can no longer be brushed aside.