The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden embraced a plan from India¡¯s government last year to edge China out of its position as a leader in making ingredients for generic pharmaceuticals sold in the U.S., but a new report shows that many of those ingredients are likely still coming from China.
America¡¯s reliance on China for drug ingredients has raised alarm bells in Congress. House committees will hold two hearings Tuesday on drug shortages and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration¡¯s foreign inspection program, which has seen a big drop in visits to Chinese factories over the last few years due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report put together ahead of the hearings by the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a trade organization pushing for tax breaks for domestic manufacturing, showed that India-based Aurobindo Pharma gets about 55% of its raw materials for ingredients from China. Aurobindo is a bellwether for the industry: It supplies the most generic drugs by volume to the U.S., and its $3.1 billion in 2023 revenue was second-highest among Indian drugmakers, data shows. The company¡¯s 2022-23 annual report said it has ¡°a high dependence on the China market¡± for materials and ingredients used to make drugs.
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