TRUMP CHINA TARIFFS RAISE DRUG PRICES

I am often stunned by the simplicity of Trump’s mind and that of his his advisors. But nothing points this out better than the US problems with pharmaceuticals. Do these politicians actually know how anything is made? China owns the supply chain for the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. Trump tariffs increase the cost of the 20% of APIs China sells to the US directly. There are no large profits in generic drugs so any jolt to the supply chain, shuts down production. The simplistic view of Trump that anything can be made in America is flatly wrong. The last time Trump was in charge of COVID, he managed to cause a global shortage in Chloroquine by claiming it was effective in the treatment and prevention of COVID. In his other crazy drug recommendation, he managed to cause shortages in the US livestock supplies of ivermectin.  

Without the supply chain, you can’t make the drugs. 

In the years since 2001 through this year, right wing media and left wing media, have reported scare articles in regard to US pharmaceutical shortages. These media have made crazy reports that China controls 90% of US pharmaceutics. The plain truth is that India is responsible for the manufacture of 45% of US Generic medicines and China roughly 35%. 

Where the story gets more interesting is with the pre-cursor chemicals used to make these pharmaceuticals. In this instance China makes 40% of the global supply of APIs, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. That makes China to global leader in APIs. Most of the APIs used in Indian generic pharmaceuticals come form China.