October 6, 2020 -- CapsCanada, a provider of two-piece empty capsules serving the global pharmaceutical industry, is bringing attention to U.S. reliance on foreign pharmaceutical ingredients, highlighted by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
According to an article written by CapsCanada, it is estimated that the U.S. relies on China and India for 75%-80% of its supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients, finished dosage pharmaceuticals, and generic drugs.
At the beginning of COVID-19, India restricted export of many common medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients. Moreover, political tension could provoke China and India to close borders and essentially cause U.S. drug supplies to evaporate. A white paper, written by the company, calls for deglobalization of API production. It suggests that the U.S. can provide incentives to move pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the Western Hemisphere (U.S., Canada, Latin America) to diversify the supply chain and increase transparency of API and raw ingredient sources.