Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, announced his plan to return the manufacturing of pharmaceutical drugs to the U.S. in a new video released Monday on Rumble.
"This is not just a public health crisis, it's a national security crisis," Trump said in the video. "As part of my plan to obtain total independence from China, we will phase in tariffs and import restrictions to bring back production of all essential medicines to the United States of America where they belong."
Trump said he signed Executive Order 13944 in 2020 to begin reshoring drug production, but that President Joe Biden "has shamefully failed to follow through" by reversing the order in 2021.
"This is a matter of tremendous urgency," Trump said in the video. "American lives are on the line, and it will be one of my top priorities as president. It will also create countless new American jobs."
Trump's executive order required federal agencies to "buy American" by facilitating the domestic production of medications and medical devices that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deemed essential to public health.
It also required the U.S. Trade Representative to modify U.S. international trade agreements so that essential drugs could no longer be purchased by federal agencies from any of the 120 countries with which the U.S. has a trade agreement.
New drug shortages increased by 30% in 2021 and 2022, reaching a record five-year high of 295 active drug shortages at the end of last year.
There is currently a shortage of at least 14 cancer drugs in the U.S. A study published in The British Medical Journal in 2020 found that the risk of death increases by about 10% for each month cancer treatment is delayed.
Instead of building up domestic manufacturing capabilities, Trump said Biden's FDA is building up foreign pharmaceutical manufacturing, especially in China.
China was the top exporter of pharmaceuticals to the U.S. measured by weight in 2021, accounting for 418 million pounds of 23% of total pharmaceutical imports, according to the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
China also accounts for 445 FDA-approved active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturers.
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