Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order on Monday, which will boost domestic production of prescription drugs and speed up the approval of U.S. medicinal flowers, will show a growing effort to lower America’s dependence on imported drugs from abroad.
In a White House fact sheet, Trump stated,” We don’t want to be buying our pharmaceuticals from other countries because we want to be able to make our own if we’re in a war, we’re in a problem, we’re in a problem.” We will always take our medical supply chains back home as we make investments in the future. Here in the United States, we will make our medicines, medicine, and solutions.
Additionally, the order calls for the FDA to raise inspection costs for international manufacturing facilities and strengthen enforcement measures to prevent foreign producers from reporting active ingredient sources. Moreover, the organization is instructed to take into account publicly naming businesses that don’t meet regulation standards.
According to the White House’s point sheet, building fresh pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in the United States may take five to ten years, which the administration deemed “unacceptable” given concerns for national security. According to Fox Business, the United States currently imports more than$ 200 billion worth of prescription drugs annually.
The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) will also play a part in the administration’s initiative, with the order directing it to approve facilities built to manufacture prescription drugs and their components more quickly.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary disclosed that the company would begin conducting surprise inspections of foreign substance factories while the professional order was signed. According to Makary, these checks do “move the monitoring to be more in range with the U.S. S”.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on medical imports, but the move comes after months of such threats. These products had generally remained exempt from prior trade disputes due to concerns about customer harm. The administration officially began looking into exports of both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors only last month, citing the government’s widespread reliance on foreign production as a threat to national security.
