Speciality Chemicals Magazine JUL / AUG 2021 | Page 3

EDITOR ' S LETTER

‘ Reshoring ’ is no simple thing

Published by :
In2Publishing Ltd ., PO Box 7492 , Kidderminster , Worcestershire , DY11 9HB , UK
Publishing Director : Jon Fellows
Editor : Dr Andrew Warmington editor @ specchemonline . com
US Editor : Gregory Morris gdlm @ enterpriseandindustry . com
Design : Sean Roper
Global Commercial Manager : Charlie Wise charlie @ in2publishing . co . uk
Global Agent : Ben Jones bjones @ centurygloballlc . com
While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the publication , In2Publishing Ltd . cannot accept liability for any statement or error contained herein . © Speciality Chemicals Magazine 2021
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES :
Speciality Chemicals Magazine welcomes feature articles from industry , consultants and academia with a technical , chemistry , regulatory and / or business and market focus . We also welcome opinion or comment pieces on issues in the fine and speciality chemicals sectors .
The articles we use are typically 800-1,500 words , with one picture , figure , diagram , table or other illustration per 500 words . Opinion pieces can be shorter . All submissions are subject to review by the editor to ensure that they are in line with house style and values . SCM does not take placed news stories .
Your article should focus on a scheduled feature , or be of general interest across the sector . We also have a ‘ Special Features ’ category if you need to supply a more general piece of work . Article titles should be no longer than 12 words , with a short standfirst summarising the content of the article and giving the name ( s ) and affiliation ( s ) of the author ( s ).
Figures and tables should be numbered and given a caption of no more than ten words . Text should be submitted in Word format , with illustrations as separate files in an editable format . Chemical formulae should be provided as PDFs . Pictures must have a minimum of 300 dpi resolution for colour printing .
FOR FURTHER GUIDELINES : editor @ specchemonline . com
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
SPECCHEMONLINE . COM 3