House Republicans press for hearing on 'threat' China poses to US pharmaceutical industry

[beijingwalker]

House Republicans press for hearing on 'threat' China poses to US pharmaceutical industry
by Emma Colton
| March 16, 2020 03:07 PM

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee demanded that Democrats schedule a hearing to look into the “threat” of relying on China for medicines used in the United States.

Striking a sense of urgency, a letter signed by ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, and 12 other Republicans argued the coronavirus pandemic has brought this issue to a head.

“The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) has highlighted a critical threat to the domestic supply of life saving prescription drugs. Too many supply chains for our most critical medicines and medical devices are too dependent on China,” said the letter addressed to Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney.

The U.S. is a leader in pharmaceutical development, yet global supply chains “rely so heavily on China that the recent COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in alarming shortages in the United States," the letter said.

The last U.S. plant to make ingredients for penicillin, for example, announced it would shutter in 2004, while Chinese companies have supplied 90% of antibiotics, vitamin C, ibuprofen, and hydrocortisone to the U.S.

“The Chinese have been attacking America on multiple fronts for far too long to allow our critical healthcare supply chain to be utterly dependent on them. We need to look into this for options immediately,” Roy told the Washington Examiner.


The spread of the coronavirus has ignited a new push from the Trump administration to urge pharmaceutical companies in the country to cut their reliance on China for drugs and medical devices.

“China has managed to dominate all aspects of the supply chain using the same unfair trade practices that it has used to dominate other sectors — cheap sweatshop labor, lax environmental regulations, and massive government subsidies,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said. “As President Trump has said, what we need to do is bring those jobs home so that we can protect the public health and the economic and national security of the country.”

A "Buy American" executive order for medicine and other medical supplies is planned for this week, Navarro said Monday.

"The essence of the order … is to bring all of that home so that we don’t have to worry about foreign dependency,” he told CNBC, arguing that the U.S. is dependent on foreign sources for too many supplies. "We’ve got face mask issues, goggle issues, things like that."

Rosemary Gibson, a senior adviser at the Hastings Center, told the New York Times that it would only be a matter of months before U.S. shelves were bare if China were to stop exporting drugs.

“In the event of a natural disaster or global pandemic, then the United States will wait in line with every other country for essential medicines,” she said.


The March 13 letter to Maloney highlights a recent article from a Chinese state-run outlet stating, “If China retaliates against the United States at this time ... it will also announce strategic control over medical products and ban exports to the United States. Then the United States will be caught in the ocean of the new coronaviruses.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...eat-china-poses-on-us-pharmaceutical-industry

 

[dbc]

Makes a lot of sense for the US and the EU to force it’s own pharmaceutical companies (probably 90% of the industry) to diversify and avoid reliance on any one country. The same should be done for all critical supplies. China can make non essentials with no redundancy in the supply chain.

 

[beijingwalker]

Makes a lot of sense for the US and the EU to force it’s own pharmaceutical companies (probably 90% of the industry) to diversify and avoid reliance on any one country. The same should be done for all critical supplies. China can make non essentials with no redundancy in the supply chain.

They've making this noise for a decade already, good luck to them this time.

 

[Bilal9]

Makes a lot of sense for the US and the EU to force it’s own pharmaceutical companies (probably 90% of the industry) to diversify and avoid reliance on any one country. The same should be done for all critical supplies. China can make non essentials with no redundancy in the supply chain.

How are you going to make this happen?

The US is entirely (entirely!) dependent on a trashy country like India for basic development of software, for network infrastructure and worse yet, for all critical database and security skills, which weren't supposed to be farmed out by the greedy corporates in the first place.

The corporates are letting this happen because you never gave a hoot, and even if services and standards suck in India. So what?

The corporates save maybe 50 cents and hour, that is visible in the bottom line for some bean-counter schmuck. US Govt. can't do squat....because people in this country don't care...

You let some Indian guy/gal come here with questionable education from some ramshackle village school, pathetic broken English and let this guy/gal replace folks who spent millions over decades educating themselves in good colleges this country, the corporates now consider both their skills equal and interchangeable, with nary a regulation or restriction.

You already did this for living wage middle class professionals and exported those jobs overseas to India for almost no difference in wages.

Guess what? These American jobs ain't coming back.

The H1B's here and the greedy Indian tech-managers in Silicon Valley will make DAMN SURE these jobs STAY in India. THEY already decide whether to hire US patriots or their fellow Indians (Guess who?). Nepotism is an Indian specialty. They don't give $hit about hiring for skills, they hire their blood. They are far more racist than apologist blancos will ever be...

Been too lazy my friend. Been sleeping.

Same story - different day. The Chinese are going to take your pharma industry too.

Your politicians are all for sale. It's inevitable.

 

[Nilgiri]

Bottom rung types will always type up lot of butthurt out of nowhere instead of trying to work to improve their lot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income

Scroll down....and keep scrolling to know the reality of this type....and why its anger builds at those on top rungs...and at it will stay that way for whole life it knows deep down.

Oh whats this? More US census reality check?:

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/land-acquired-for-indian-economic-zones.550354/page-6#post-10366772

If you are of a certain type, just dismiss as "WIKI-stats conspiracy!!!"...dont actually go to the US census data page...only painful reality there after all.

This type will just keep getting frustrated as reality keeps unfolding and it and its type are left further and further behind.

Just look at the quantity and quality of the few that get to an actual STEM field....yikes! No wonder! "Trashy" doesn't begin to describe it.....its more like a Dhaka "airport" youtube scene.

 

[dbc]

They've making this noise for a decade already, good luck to them this time.

You shouldn't be so confident - here is a list of top 10 Pharmaceutical companies in the world.
They are all US or European companies.

The biggest lesson learnt from COVID-19 is to diversify supply.
The US and EU governments are going to legislate that all the companies that produce critical supplies diversify ASAP.

I can tell you this is happening NOW.

The intent is not to punish China, the intent is to make sure we don't keep all our eggs in one basket.


https://www.tharawat-magazine.com/facts/10-largest-pharmaceutical-drug-companies-world/

How are you going to make this happen?

The US is entirely (entirely!) dependent on a trashy country like India for basic development of software, for network infrastructure and worse yet, for all critical database and security skills, which weren't supposed to be farmed out by the greedy corporates in the first place.

I wasn't talking about jobs - I was talking about critical supplies that are essential during a crisis. I did not say anything about bringing jobs back to America, this is about mitigating the risk of supply disruption with implications to national security.

US firms outsourcing IT for accounting or similar to India is not a national security issue.

 

[Bilal9]

US firms outsourcing IT for accounting or similar to India is not a national security issue.

There are highly critical pieces of US Govt. information being stored overseas in the shoddy country called India where they don't abide by neither US standards of encryption nor any vetting of personnel who oversee this data.

I am going to make two assumptions,

a) You are not IT conversant (or trying to show you don't care), and

b) You are originally from India only opening threads to discredit strengths of the Chinese economy

How can you not care about bringing jobs back to the US unless you are an H1B Indian masquerading as a US Citizen in your handle?

@beijingwalker have you seen this guy before? I am pretty sure this is an Indian guy opening anti-China threads.

@waz we have masquerade artist here.

 

[dbc]

There are highly critical pieces of US Govt. information being stored overseas in the shoddy country called India where they don't abide by neither US standards of encryption nor any vetting of personnel who oversee this data.

I am not aware of any instances of sensitive US government data with National security implications being stored in India. If you want me to be concerned please educate me.

I am talking about the production of life saving equipment (ventilators & respirators) and drugs in the midst of a global pandemic.
I am talking about the massive “OMG” everything is made in China $hitstorm on Capitol Hill right now. Where the nation is scrambling to get a hold of every ventilator we can scrounge up.. If you are so pissed off about Indians taking American IT jobs write to your congressman/woman.

@AgNoStiC MuSliM @WebMaster they can address your concerns about me being a Indian H1B IT worker.
I’ve known AM since 2009, I still miss the intense and informative debates between him and my friend @S2. Back in the good old days when this forum was better administered.

 

[Bilal9]

I am not aware of any instances of sensitive US government data with National security implications being stored in India. If you want me to be concerned please educate me.

I am talking about the production of life saving equipment (ventilators & respirators) and drugs in the midst of a global pandemic.
I am talking about the massive “OMG” everything is made in China $hitstorm on Capitol Hill right now. Where the nation is scrambling to get a hold of every ventilator we can scrounge up.. If you are so pissed off about Indians taking American IT jobs write to your congressman/woman.

@AgNoStiC MuSliM @WebMaster they can address your concerns about me being a Indian H1B IT worker.
I’ve known AM since 2009, I still miss the intense and informative debates between him and my friend @S2. Back in the good old days when this forum was better administered.

Well some apology is certainly in order and is due to you, my doubts have been allayed to a large extent.

About critical US govt. data being stored and managed in India, it is not as highly publicized as other IT fields being outsourced to India.

However the trend is real, with medical, financial, GIS, statistical and local govt. law enforcement data certainly being stored there. The problem is the ease with which these data can be pilfered and leveraged by our enemies in a military confrontation scenario, with none of the security regimes for protecting this data being applied to Indian contexts, as it is here. For starters, here is one article,

How to keep data safe when outsourcing offshore
By Paul Henry, CyberGuard

As U.S. businesses, policy-makers and security experts work to stem the tide of data thefts, an equal or greater vulnerability lurks overseas -- the level of network and physical security at outsourced operations of U.S. corporations.

Cheap labor and increased efficiencies continue to drive major U.S. companies to open and expand offshore operations throughout India, Southeast Asia and Europe. India's National Association of Software and Service Companies reported recently that India's outsourcing industry is creating jobs at the rate of nearly 100,000 a year, and its revenue is growing at more than 40% annually. Analyst firm Gartner Inc. estimates that global spending on offshore outsourcing services will top $50 billion by 2007.

Many of these outsourced operations involve handling and processing customer transactions and sensitive personal information, exposing outsourcing facilities to the same risk of data theft occurring domestically. As U.S. companies increase operations abroad, many aren't ramping up IT or physical security measures at these locations to manage that growth.

In order to prevent data breaches on the magnitude of what has occurred in the U.S., companies must implement strategies to ensure that the same security standards that they place on their corporate data are being required of companies they partner with across the globe to process their customers' financial and personal information.

Several factors magnify the risk of data thefts occurring at outsourcing locations. First, when it comes to outsourcing, U.S. privacy legislation is quite lax relative to European Union regulations. Here, U.S. privacy protections effectively end at the border, placing the onus squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. company if a data breach occurs offshore.

In sharp contrast, European consumers are afforded considerably greater protection by an EU law that permits personal data to be sent offshore only to countries whose privacy laws have been deemed to provide equivalent privacy protection and that have been found to have strong enforcement capabilities.

India also comes up short with regulations on personal privacy and data. India's Information Technology Act 2000 remains silent on the issues of privacy, protection and regulated use of data. The act in its existing form covers only unauthorized access and data theft from computers and networks with a maximum penalty of about $220,000 and doesn't have specific provisions relating to data privacy. Indian law doesn't cover data interception and computer forgery at all. Thus, data-protection issues primarily remain in an unregulated Indian environment.

In view of the lower wages in outsourcing, one must also consider that the cost to potentially compromise an individual's integrity is also proportionally lower with that same outsourcing partner. In light of this consideration, clearly the security controls set for an outsourcing firm must be more stringent than those that would have been in place had the organization kept the task in-house.

There are several steps U.S. companies can take to secure their outsourcing operations abroad and protect customer data.

First, as we recommend to companies across the globe, a strong security policy must be put in place and followed vigorously. This goes beyond perimeter security to include physical security as well as access and application controls. In addition:

• Companies that outsource their data to call centers should ensure that the security policies, procedures and technical safeguards used by their outsourcing partners are equal to or better then their own.
• Both regular and random risk assessments should be carried out at the call or outsourcing center, especially if it's in a commercial high-risk location where bribery and corruption are endemic. Risk assessments should cover all 10 domains of network security and shouldn't be limited to gateway security.

At the outsourcing facility, the following should be done:

• Encrypt all data in storage and in transit.
• Physical security controls should be in place to mitigate the risk of data leaving the facility via magnetic or optical media, recording devices, cameras and hard copies.
• Ensure that sending any data in or out is monitored or even prevented for e-mail, Web mail, FTP, and data- and file-transfer Web sites (by controlling Web site access). Only essential Internet communications should be allowed.
• At the desktop, prevent any unauthorized data from entering or leaving the network via Universal Serial Bus (such as USB sticks) and FireWire devices (such as iPods), CD, DVD, floppy drive, SCSI, parallel or any of the other ports.
• Each employee should be vetted for criminal records and credit history to see if he poses a high security risk. Simply put, if you can't manage your own finances, you shouldn't be entrusted to manage the financial records of others.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and unless U.S. companies shore up security at outsourcing locations, operations across the entire company will be put at risk.

Paul Henry is senior vice president of CyberGuard Corp. a global provider of security solutions based in Boca Raton, Fla.

 

[WebMaster]

a) You are not IT conversant (or trying to show you don't care), and

b) You are originally from India only opening threads to discredit strengths of the Chinese economy

How can you not care about bringing jobs back to the US unless you are an H1B Indian masquerading as a US Citizen in your handle?

Focus on the topic, not the person. Thanks.

 

[Bilal9]

I am not aware of any instances of sensitive US government data with National security implications being stored in India. If you want me to be concerned please educate me.

I am talking about the production of life saving equipment (ventilators & respirators) and drugs in the midst of a global pandemic.
I am talking about the massive “OMG” everything is made in China $hitstorm on Capitol Hill right now. Where the nation is scrambling to get a hold of every ventilator we can scrounge up.. If you are so pissed off about Indians taking American IT jobs write to your congressman/woman.

@AgNoStiC MuSliM @WebMaster they can address your concerns about me being a Indian H1B IT worker.
I’ve known AM since 2009, I still miss the intense and informative debates between him and my friend @S2. Back in the good old days when this forum was better administered.

Not saying Bangladesh will ever match Chinese Pharma capabilities, but they have been self-sufficient for drugs for many years and have a thriving export market as well.

Bangladesh (along with Pakistan) can be part of the US drug diversification program and already exports generics to many US drug market intermediaries.

More here,

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/bangladeshs-annual-pharma-export-to-cross-1bn-in-2-years.655075/

 

[Arulmozhi Varman]

You shouldn't be so confident - here is a list of top 10 Pharmaceutical companies in the world.
They are all US or European companies.

The biggest lesson learnt from COVID-19 is to diversify supply.
The US and EU governments are going to legislate that all the companies that produce critical supplies diversify ASAP.

I can tell you this is happening NOW.

The intent is not to punish China, the intent is to make sure we don't keep all our eggs in one basket.


https://www.tharawat-magazine.com/facts/10-largest-pharmaceutical-drug-companies-world/



I wasn't talking about jobs - I was talking about critical supplies that are essential during a crisis. I did not say anything about bringing jobs back to America, this is about mitigating the risk of supply disruption with implications to national security.

US firms outsourcing IT for accounting or similar to India is not a national security issue.

Seems he just got his a$$ whipped by Indian Americans considering they are the highest earning immigrants groups in US. With due respect to Bangladeshis driving cabs and doing odd jobs his vitriol should be ignored.

As for drugs, while china is the world.leader of API ingredients, India is the dominant supplier of generic drugs. West develops a vaccine and Indian companies develop an equivalent at quarter of its cost. We supply most drugs to Europe and US. However India too is dependent upon Chinese API for our drug industry.

 

[Nilgiri]

I am not aware of any instances of sensitive US government data with National security implications being stored in India. If you want me to be concerned please educate me.

I am talking about the production of life saving equipment (ventilators & respirators) and drugs in the midst of a global pandemic.
I am talking about the massive “OMG” everything is made in China $hitstorm on Capitol Hill right now. Where the nation is scrambling to get a hold of every ventilator we can scrounge up.. If you are so pissed off about Indians taking American IT jobs write to your congressman/woman.

@AgNoStiC MuSliM @WebMaster they can address your concerns about me being a Indian H1B IT worker.
I’ve known AM since 2009, I still miss the intense and informative debates between him and my friend @S2. Back in the good old days when this forum was better administered.

Heh looks like you had a run in with the forum's drama-princess. Well played and well smacked. Trust me on this, it hitting "like" on your smacks is just the reeling from the hurt you just inflicted solidly on its frail sensitive psyche.

Seems he just got his a$$ whipped by Indian Americans considering they are the highest earning immigrants groups in US. With due respect to Bangladeshis driving cabs and doing odd jobs his vitriol should be ignored.

As for drugs, while china is the world.leader of API ingredients, India is the dominant supplier of generic drugs. West develops a vaccine and Indian companies develop an equivalent at quarter of its cost. We supply most drugs to Europe and US. However India too is dependent upon Chinese API for our drug industry.

He honestly has no idea how much he furthers and helps India and Indians everywhere in the end by being this level of cringey....out of nowhere and a topic not even concerning India in first place.

Attacking a member as "Indian" (for the member merely pointing out conflation of issue) calling him/her as "masquerade artist" first thing and tagging a mod on top lol.

You can tell quite quickly what this person's station is in real life. Reality burns that much. Just like the US census data posted.

 

[dbc]

Not saying Bangladesh will ever match Chinese Pharma capabilities, but they have been self-sufficient for drugs for many years and have a thriving export market as well.

Bangladesh (along with Pakistan) can be part of the US drug diversification program and already exports generics to many US drug market intermediaries.

More here,

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/bangladeshs-annual-pharma-export-to-cross-1bn-in-2-years.655075/

Yes of course single sourcing of essentials is such a bad idea - corporate greed got us in this mess.
The future is moving to smaller self contained manufacturing units that will benefit nations like Bangladesh it will level the playing field and allow small agile businesses to compete with the well established behemoths in China. When this happens infrastructure will no longer be such a big factor in industrial efficiency.

Have you seen the pfizer video in my earlier post - isn't it cool! It was originally designed to produce nanomedicines delivered by virus and theranostics (personalized medicine).

Thanks to @beijingwalker I have learnt so many new things about modern medicine.

 

[Beidou2020]

How are you going to make this happen?

The US is entirely (entirely!) dependent on a trashy country like India for basic development of software, for network infrastructure and worse yet, for all critical database and security skills, which weren't supposed to be farmed out by the greedy corporates in the first place.

The corporates are letting this happen because you never gave a hoot, and even if services and standards suck in India. So what?

The corporates save maybe 50 cents and hour, that is visible in the bottom line for some bean-counter schmuck. US Govt. can't do squat....because people in this country don't care...

You let some Indian guy/gal come here with questionable education from some ramshackle village school, pathetic broken English and let this guy/gal replace folks who spent millions over decades educating themselves in good colleges this country, the corporates now consider both their skills equal and interchangeable, with nary a regulation or restriction.

You already did this for living wage middle class professionals and exported those jobs overseas to India for almost no difference in wages.

Guess what? These American jobs ain't coming back.

The H1B's here and the greedy Indian tech-managers in Silicon Valley will make DAMN SURE these jobs STAY in India. THEY already decide whether to hire US patriots or their fellow Indians (Guess who?). Nepotism is an Indian specialty. They don't give $hit about hiring for skills, they hire their blood. They are far more racist than apologist blancos will ever be...

Been too lazy my friend. Been sleeping.

Same story - different day. The Chinese are going to take your pharma industry too.

Your politicians are all for sale. It's inevitable.

This is why America’s hyper capitalist economy and political system is a failure. China’s system combines market economy with socialism which is the correct way to go. America’s version of capitalism is extreme as it doesn’t bring benefits to its people. When everything revolves around profit, everything and everybody is up for sale.