FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: James Arnold or Mary Collins Atkinson (202) 224-2353
December 15, 2021 

Cotton, Braun Introduce Bill to Curb Reliance on Chinese Pharmaceuticals

Washington, D.C. — Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Mike Braun (R-Indiana) today introduced the Anyone But China Safe Drugs Act, or the ABC Safe Drug Act, legislation to track active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), prohibit pharmaceutical purchases from China, and create transparency within the medical supply chain. Bill text may be found here.

“Shortages in the medical supply chain are a matter of life and death, and we cannot rely on China for our citizens’ survival. Our bill will encourage pharmaceutical production in friendly countries and end dependency on the Chinese Communist Party,” said Cotton.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated why we cannot continue to rely so heavily on communist China for lifesaving medications. I am proud to join Senator Cotton on this legislation that will ban the use of federal funds for the purchase of drugs manufactured in China and add more much-needed transparency to our drug supply chain,” said Braun.

The ABC Safe Drug Act would:

  • Require the Food and Drug Administration to create a registry of all drugs and corresponding APIs that are produced outside the United States and are determined to be critical to the health and safety of Americans.
  • Require that the Department of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and all other federally qualified health facilities purchase pharmaceutical products that have no APIs produced in China.
    • This requirement will be phased in over two years. The FDA may issue waivers if the APIs are only available in China, however, no waivers may be issued after 2027.
  • Require drug companies to list the APIs and their countries of origin on the labels of imported and domestically produced finished drug products.

 

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