The U.S. has lost virtually all of its industrial base to make generic antibiotics. The nation’s health security is in jeopardy. The U.S. can no longer make penicillin.
The last U.S. penicillin fermentation plant closed in 2004. Industry data reveal that Chinese companies formed a cartel, colluded to sell product on the global market at below market price, and drove all U.S. European, and Indian producers out of business. Once they gained dominant global market share, prices increased. The U.S. can no longer make generic antibiotics. Because the U.S. has allowed the industrial base to wither, the U.S. cannot produce generic antibiotics for children’s ear infections, strep throat, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, sexually-transmitted diseases, Lyme disease, superbugs and other infections that are threats to human life. We cannot make the generic antibiotics for anthrax exposure. After the anthrax attacks on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in 2001, the U.S. government turned to a European company to buy 20 million doses of the recommended treatment for anthrax exposure, doxycycline. That company had to buy the chemical starting material from China. What if China were the anthrax attacker?More daunting topics from this document:
Beyond Antibiotics, the U.S. Industrial Base for Generic Drug Manufacturing Is on the Brink of Collapse. Generic Drugs are 90 Percent of the Medicines Americans Take (antibiotics, anti-depressants, birth control pills, chemotherapy for cancer treatment for children and adults, medicine for Alzheimer’s, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, Parkinson’s, and epilepsy, to name a few).
If China Shut the Door on Exports of Medicines and Their Key Ingredients and Raw Materials, U.S. Hospitals and Military Hospitals and Clinics Would Cease to Function Within Months, if Not Days.
As the U.S. Rapidly Loses Control Over the Production and Supply of Vital Medicines, It Loses Control Over the Price of Medicines Consumers and Hospitals Pay.
Risks of Contaminated and Potentially Lethal Medicines Are Increasing.
Medicines Can Be Used as a Strategic and Tactical
Weapon Against the United States
Medicines should be treated as a strategic asset similar to oil and other energy supplies and agricultural commodities such as wheat and corn.
The United States would cease to function within days if supplies of energy and food commodities were disrupted. The same is true of medicines.
There are decades where you fuck around and days where you find out