EDITOR ' S LETTER
‘ Reshoring ’ is no simple thing
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There is an irony of sorts here . After all the sound and fury about the loss of American manufacturing jobs to offshoring that in part brought about the Trump administration , his much softer-spoken successor is actively doing something about it - at least in areas like pharmaceuticals , where critical dependency on imports is manifestly a problem . In addition to past scandals concerning fake and adulterated drugs , this has been largely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic exposing the very long , vulnerable and opaque supply chains involved . An estimated 87 % of the generic drugs the US uses are imported , but no-one knows for sure because so much information is proprietary . In May , following a three-month review , the Biden administration has announced a new strategy that will seek to accelerate the ‘ reshoring ’ of some drug manufacturing . It envisages a public-private consortium driving this , starting by identifying 50-100 drugs from the FDA ’ s essential medicines list for prioritisation . The Government will also invest by other routes in “ novel platform technologies ” for domestic API production , potentially including 3D printing and continuous manufacturing . Further planned measures include the creation of new authorities to help track API sourcing and more stringent labelling of the plants of origin . The concept of ‘ reshoring ’ has long been popular among certain politicians , particularly those in areas where jobs have vanished and China is an easy target . That said , the administration ’ s aims will not be easy to achieve , not least because of the cost advantages that drove manufacturing abroad in the first place . As we report in this issue from a panel session at the CPhI Discover event ( pages 17-20 ), the ‘ right ’ kind of capacity is no longer there and who would build it to make generics when the margins available for them are so thin and the pressure on costs so relentless ? Nor is at all likely that there will be a flood of jobs returning to the US . Nonetheless , the Biden administration clearly is in earnest on this one . It has since announced the Antiviral Program for Pandemics as part of its American Rescue Plan . This will spend $ 3 billion to build a stockpile of drugs to treat COVID-19 and future viruses , focusing on drugs that can be developed in the US . American-based API producers have already been the beneficiaries of statedriven investment in domestic production of COVID-19 drugs . For instance , in April , the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority signed a $ 354 million deal with Phlow Corporation to produce essential medications at Virginia Commonwealth University ’ s Medicines for All Institute . The total cost of this could reach $ 812 million over ten years . Phlow and its partners , which include Ampac Fine Chemicals ( AFC ), producing APIs its own site in Virginia , will make COVID-19 treatments . As part of this , AFC will invest over $ 25 million to expand the capabilities of its former Boehringer Ingelheim plant at Petersburg Industrial Park in Virginia . It will be interesting to see how this one plays out in the longer term – and what the EU will do . The challenge is fundamentally the same but whether a co-ordinated response can take place and what shape it might take are far less clear . This is still a matter for national governments , some of which , like France ’ s , are already acting , but on a much smaller scale . We will certainly return to this subject before long .
Dr Andrew Warmington
EDITOR – SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE
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