Biden Looks to Boost Domestic Drug Manufacturing Amid Shortages

Amid widespread drug shortages, President Biden is outlining a plan to increase domestic production of essential pharmaceuticals — including by leveraging a defense law used to bolster countermeasures against COVID-19.

Why it matters: The number of drugs in shortage is higher than at any point in almost a decade, while U.S. drug manufacturers largely depend on overseas suppliers for active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Health care and national security experts for years have called for moving more drug manufacturing to the U.S., partly to guard against disruptions from a future pandemic or military conflict.

Driving the news: Biden announced Monday that he'll use the Defense Production Act, among other measures, to create more essential medicines in the U.S.

- The Korean War-era law, invoked by Biden and former President Trump during the pandemic, allows the president to direct private companies to produce materials and goods needed for national defense.
- Biden will give the Health and Human Services Department authority to invest in medical products unrelated to the pandemic, including insulin, morphine, vaccines and ventilators, a White House official told Axios.
- An official directive with more details will be released within a week, the official said.
- HHS' Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response will oversee the effort, and the administration said it will invest $35 million into producing key starting materials for sterile injectable drugs.
- "That supply chain is going to start here in America. We're going to help ensure American families have reliable access to medicines they need," Biden said Monday, as he announced around 30 other measures meant to head off shortages of key goods.

What they're saying: Biden's announcement is "quite positive," said Marta Wosińska, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Schaeffer Initiative on Health Policy.

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