Bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would improve federal coordination and visibility of medicine supply chains.
The Mapping America’s Pharmaceutical Supply Act would directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in coordination with other relevant agencies and the private sector, to regularly update, maintain, and publish a list of essential medicines.
The federal government would use the list to conduct a assessment of medical supply chains to learn current domestic manufacturing capabilities, sole-sourced products, overreliance on high-risk foreign sources, cybersecurity threats, the key ingredients needed to manufacture essential medicines, and any other gaps that may reduce the federal government’s ability to identify health and national security risks related to medicine supply chains.
HHS would be required to map all essential medicine supply chains using data analytics to proactively assess vulnerabilities and threats. The work would be done through public private partnerships.
The bill also would require the Department of Defense to submit to Congress reports on drug products that rely on China for critical inputs and finished dose forms.
U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), James Lankford (R-OK), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced the bill.