WASHINGTON – Warning that the United States should not rely on other countries to supply needed medicines, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday requiring the federal government to purchase certain drugs from American manufacturers rather than from overseas companies.
"We cannot rely on China and other nations across the globe that could one day deny us products at a time of need," Trump said. "We can't do it. We have to be smart."
About 72% of manufacturers that supply pharmaceutical ingredients to the USA are overseas, and 13% of them are in China, Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told a congressional panel last October. Tensions between the United States and China are at a peak, not only over the coronavirus but also trade and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
