Bedminster, NJ — In a new Agenda47 video, President Donald J. Trump announced his plan to end Joe Biden’s pharmaceutical shortages and return the manufacture of life-saving drugs to the United States.
“This is not just a public health crisis, it’s a national security crisis,” President Trump said. “As part of my plan to obtain total independence from China, we will phase in tariffs and import restrictions to bring back production of all essential medicines to the United States of America where they belong. I signed an executive order to begin this process in 2020 but Biden has shamefully failed to follow through.”
President Trump took historic action in 2020 to ensure essential medicines were produced in the United States but Joe Biden reversed the order in 2021. Now, there are severe shortages of over 295 medications—a record five-year high.
“This is a matter of tremendous urgency. American lives are on the line, and it will be one of my top priorities as President. It will also create countless new American jobs.”
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S PLAN TO END JOE BIDEN’S SHORTAGE OF LIFE SAVING CANCER DRUGS AND OTHER ESSENTIAL PHARMACEUTICALS BY RETURNING THE MANUFACTURE OF CRITICAL MEDICINES TO THE UNITED STATES
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PLAN WILL ENSURE A SAFE AND RELIABLE SUPPLY OF LIFE SAVING CANCER DRUGS AND OTHER CRITICAL MEDICINES MADE IN AMERICA
– President Trump will restore his Executive Order 13944, dated August 6, 2020, on Ensuring Essential Medicines, Medical Countermeasures, and Critical Inputs Are Made in the United States.
– This Essential Medicines EO sought to ensure sufficient and reliable, long-term domestic production of essential medications, minimizing potential shortages by reducing our dependence on foreign manufacturers.
– The EO required federal agencies to “Buy American” by facilitating the domestic production of medicines and medical devices that the FDA determined “essential” to public health. It did so by requiring federal agencies to buy medicines and medical devices that are entirely “produced in the United States.”
– The EO also required the U.S. Trade Representative to modify our international trade agreements so that drugs deemed “essential” to public health by the FDA can no longer be purchased by federal agencies from any of the 120 countries that has a trade agreement with the U.S. that authorizes the manufacture of such “essential” drugs for the U.S. market.
– President Trump’s August 2020 Essential Medicines EO reflected critical lessons learned from the national response to the COVID19 pandemic, including the extreme national vulnerability caused by the lack of an adequate domestic manufacturing capability for critical pharmaceuticals. This vulnerability was compounded by the severely UNDERFUNDED and DEPLETED Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) left by the Obama-Biden administration. As a result, between March 2020 and January 2021, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act over 100 times to rapidly replenish the SNS with medicines and medical equipment to fight the pandemic. As a part of this effort, large-scale and long-term government contracts were awarded to American manufacturers to produce life-saving essential medicines and medical equipment for public health emergencies. For example, Phlow Corporation in Richmond, Virginia, was awarded a $354 million contract—with an additional $458 million available for long-term stockpiling purposes—to manufacture over a dozen kinds of USA-made medicines and their precursor ingredients to treat patients hospitalized with the COVID19 virus.
– Restoring President Trump’s August 2020 Essential Medicines EO will kickstart the domestic production of lifesaving drugs.
– American doctors should never have to give a patient a drug from an unapproved facility in China or India. We can and must produce these essential medicines at home.
– A recent survey conducted by Washington University in St. Louis found that 30 percent of U.S. pharmaceutical companies utilize 50 percent or less of their facility capacity, meaning U.S. companies could already produce millions more doses of medication every year.
JOE BIDEN GUTTED PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ESSENTIAL MEDICINES EXECUTIVE ORDER TO “BUY AMERICAN”, ALLOWING FEDERAL AGENCIES TO BUY ESSENTIAL MEDICINES FROM UNSAFE FOREIGN COUNTRIES
– On April 20, 2021, Biden withdrew a proposal to put President Trump’s EO into effect by removing essential drugs and medical devices from coverage under the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTO GPA).
– By ripping up the proposal, the U.S. government can continue to buy foreign-made medicines and medical devices.
– With federal agencies still permitted under current law to purchase medicines “essential” to public health from any of America’s 120 trading partners, there is no incentive for federal agencies to buy from domestic companies. As a result, the United States will continue to be dependent on foreign countries for its most critical medical needs.
JOE BIDEN’S DRUG SHORTAGE CONSTITUTES AN URGENT PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS
– Under Biden, shortages of essential medications have grown astronomically.
– Between 2021 and 2022, new drug shortages increased by 30 percent, with a record five-year high of 295 active drug shortages at the end of 2022.
– The U.S. is at a near-10 year high in drug shortages.
– There is currently a shortage of at least 14 cancer drugs in the U.S.
– A June 2023 survey by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) found that 93 percent of U.S. cancer centers have shortages of carboplatin and 70 percent have shortages of cisplatin, essential medicines that treat a wide array of cancers.
– A study published in 2020 in The British Medical Journal found that every month delayed in cancer treatment can raise the risk of death by around 10%.
JOE BIDEN’S DRUG SHORTAGE IS FUELED BY OVERRELIANCE ON FOREIGN-MADE MEDICINES AND, IN SOME CASE, POTENTIALLY UNSAFE MANUFACTURERS
– Instead of building a domestic manufacturing capability, Biden’s FDA is building up foreign manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and putting American lives at risk.
– India accounts for the majority of FDA-approved active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facilities sending drugs into the United States as of 2021.
– China accounts for 445 FDA-approved API manufacturers.
– In 2021, China was the top exporter of pharmaceutical to the U.S. measured by weight, accounting for 190 million kilograms (418 million lbs.) or 23% of total pharma imports.
– Chinese imports to the U.S. now account for 95 percent of ibuprofen, 91 percent of hydrocortisone, 70 percent of acetaminophen, and 40 to 45 percent of penicillin.
– China and India account for 90 percent of all prescriptions written in the U.S.
– Chinese and Indian drug companies present a substantial risk to the health of Americans.
– In June 2023, the Biden FDA considered temporarily importing cancer drugs, cisplatin and carboplatin, from unapproved foreign companies because of domestic shortages.
– The shortages were exacerbated by Intas Pharmaceuticals, an Indian drug companies that shut down production after it shredded documents and dowsed trashcans in acid when the FDA began to investigate them.
– The Biden FDA allowed Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, an Indian drug company, to export into the U.S. even though it was under an import ban because of significant violations of current good manufacturing practices at its facility in Baddi.
TRANSCRIPT
Under crooked Joe Biden there has been a catastrophic increase in shortages of essential medicines. Last year, new drug shortages were up by 30% with 295 active drug shortages, just by the end of 2022 alone. It’s a mess.
There’s currently a shortage of at least 14 critical cancer drugs in the United States. They just can’t get it. And every month of delay, cancer treatment increases the risk of death by at least 10%. It’s unthinkable that this could be happening in the United States of America in 2023. It is truly unbelievable. We are becoming a third world country very rapidly between our open borders and our bad elections. We are third world.
But even more dangerously, the top producer of critical medicines that we rely on in the United States is a place called China. China produces 95% of all ibuprofen, 91% of hydrocortisone, 70% of all Tylenol, and nearly half of all penicillin. Can you imagine that?
This is not just a public health crisis, it’s a national security crisis. As part of my plan to obtain total independence from China, we will phase in tariffs and import restrictions to bring back production of all essential medicines to the United States of America where they belong. I signed an executive order to begin this process in 2020 but Biden has shamefully failed to follow through. He wants it ended. He wants to take care of China.
This is a matter of tremendous urgency. American lives are on the line, and it will be one of my top priorities as President. It will also create countless new American jobs.
Thank you.
