The U.S. and China may have called a truce on trade, but Beijing has other levers to pull should febrile relations deteriorate again. That¡¯s a potential supply-chain chokepoint that Washington has overlooked: its strategic rival¡¯s tight grip on the raw materials needed to make an array of medicines.
The urgency of tackling pharmaceutical supplies lies at the heart of the recently published U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission¡¯s annual report. It proposed that Congress immediately amend a 2020 law to expand the authority of the Federal Food and Drug Administration to require pharmaceutical firms to report on the volume and origin of the building blocks of modern drugs. It also asked the regulator to encourage the use of supplies from non-China sources.
It wasn¡¯t the first time the body has brought up the issue. However, the speed with which the U.S. essentially folded after Beijing expanded export controls recently on crucial rare earth minerals is a sign that this other glaring vulnerability can no longer be brushed aside.
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