This week, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., brought out a bill to “create a strong incentive for companies to invest in domestic pharmaceutical production; address the ongoing and prevent future drug shortages; and shift away from reliance on Communist China.”
Scott is championing the “Accelerating Movement of Essential Rx Items to Create Access to National Drug Resources for US Government Services Act (AMERICAN DRUGS Act)” and his office offered some of the reasons for the proposal.
“Currently, about 90% of drugs dispensed at U.S. pharmacies are generic drugs that overwhelmingly come from Communist China and India. The AMERICAN DRUGS Act seeks to fix this problem by leveraging the buying power of the federal government and requiring federal health programs to purchase American-manufactured generic drugs, if there are two or more American manufacturers of a generic drug,” Scott’s office noted.
U.S. Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, are co-sponsoring the bill which is also backed by Securing America’s Medicines and Supply (SAMS) Coalition and the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
Scott weighed in on the bill on Thursday.
“During COVID we learned a hard lesson—our medical supply chain relies heavily on Communist China for critical health products like PPE and medicine. It was a wake-up call to bring jobs back home and reignite American pharmaceutical manufacturing and why I’m fighting to pass the American Drugs Act. Americans can’t trust Communist China and can’t allow any reliance on Xi’s evil regime for life-saving medicine,” said Scott.
“It is a threat to our national security to have so much of our pharmaceutical supply chain overseas in countries like China. Making drugs here in America is safer and better for our country. This bill will move us in the right direction,” said Braun.
The bill “requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide notification to agencies when there are two domestic manufacturers of a generic drug; requires FDA to provide the first two domestically manufactured generic drugs expedited drug review; and requires Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense/TRICARE to purchase American-made generic drugs when there are two domestic manufacturers of a drug. Provides the agencies with appropriate waiver authority to ensure no beneficiary is denied access to their medication.”
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