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#1
Are All Generic Drugs Created Equal? An Empirical Analysis of Generic Drug Manufacturing Location and Serious Drug Adverse Events
Full text?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10591478251319691
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KarlT
#2
No doubt the US needs to bring drug manufacturing back home.
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It would likely be a lot more cost effective (and faster to implement), it seems, to just do much better FDA monitoring of any generic drug manufacturers anywhere they are. Right now the FDA is not allowed to do surprise visits to generic drug manufacturers in India, they have to give more than 30 days advance notice; this is a problem.
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KarlT
#4
Agree, but we are at the mercy of countries that may all of a sudden cut of the supply. As during Covid.
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Indeed, manufacturing may not be āefficientā, but what many donāt realize us that efficiency and reliability are often at conflict with each other. You need redundancy.
A good example is the recent baby formula shortage which happened because one manufacturer had a contamination issue
It is absurd that one plant led to a nationwide shortage.
Also, there are only 3 baby formula manufacturers in the US, which is another way of saying itās a monopoly, and itās very difficult for new competitors to enter this market.
This is all a consequence of moving manufacturing overseas.
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All trueā¦ but the same thing was brought up during COVID regarding PPE, and there was a flood of money supporting US manufacturing that went away as soon as COVID was over. Its needs a long term industrial policy of supportā¦ and that has historically been hard to get in the US. Perhaps things are changing.
UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. (AP) ā When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S., sales of window coverings at Halcyon Shades quickly went dark. So the suburban St. Louis business did what hundreds of other small manufacturers did: It pivoted to make protective supplies, with help from an $870,000 government grant.
But things havenāt worked out as planned. The company quit making face shields because it wasnāt profitable. It still hasnāt sold a single N95 mask because of struggles to get equipment, materials and regulatory approval.
āSo far, it has been a net drain of funds and resources and energy,ā Halcyon Shades owner Jim Schmersahl said.
Many companies that began producing personal protective equipment with patriotic optimism have scaled back, shut down or given up, according to an Associated Press analysis based on numerous interviews with manufacturers. Some already have sold equipment they bought with state government grants.
As COVID-19 was stressing hospitals and shuttering businesses in 2020, elected officials touted the need to boost U.S. production of protective gear: āAll this stuff should be made in the United States and not in China,ā Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in remarks echoed by others.
Yet many manufacturers who answered the call have faced logistical hurdles, regulatory rejections, slumping demand and fierce competition from foreign suppliers. On April 1, Florida-based American Surgical Mask Co. became one of the latest to close.
Yes, industrial policy is important, but sadly not simple to implement. We have tried over, and over again to support domestic producers, at great cost to the taxpayer, only to end up with domestic producers who gobbled up astronomical government subsidies, and still ignominously failed right on schedule. How many taxpayer funded billions has Intel eagerly pocketed and where are they today? At the time this taxpayer money giveaway was lobbied for by the Intel CEO, certain senators (ahem, B. Sanders) predicted it will all be a waste based on long, long, long previous history of corps outsourcing and off shoring and then turning to the taxpayers like the kid who kills his parents and then argues for support based on being an orphan. Well, it didnāt take long - and what is the result? A lot of taxpayer money was pocketed, and the richly paid CEO has retired as the house of cards fell apart, with shambolic Intel continuing to be shambolic.
Fancy paradigms of JIT ājust in timeā have proven hollow with the breakdown of supply chains during Covid, and everyone understood the virtues of JIC ājust in caseā, where you cannot abdicate control over vital supplies now at the mercy of foreign companies.
Do we really want to be reliant for something as vital as medicine on suppliers who are subject to the whims of economic and geopolitical forces beyond our control? So yes to domestic production, but in exchange for any government support, we need obligations from the supported companies in return, not just the same old socialized losses and privatized profits. Iām not optimistc - scratch that, Iām betting itāll just be another giant failure.
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KarlT
#8
Another good example is with IV fluids. 60% of IV fluids used in the US are made at one facility in North Carolina that was damaged by the Hurricane last year.
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Indeed, the amount of monopolies (āconsolidationā ) in the US economy is astounding, and that has been due to economic policies.
And a similar story with eggs this year. The market is consolidated, and the price increase can be largely blamed greediness and a lack of players in the market , not the avian flu.
KarlT
#10
Donāt know about that. Losing 150 million chickens to bird flu impacts egg production.
Please have a look at this letter sent from Farm Action to the FTC asking to investigate the egg supply chain for monopolistic behavior :
In particular :
Over the past 24 months, avian flu outbreaks have resulted in the culling of approximately 115 million
egg-laying chickens. The effect of these losses on the total size of the U.S. egg-laying flock has been
relatively modest, however. In a month-to-month comparison to 2021, the egg-laying flock was, on
average, only 3.82% smaller in each month of 2022, 3.16% smaller in each month of 2023, and 5.18%
smaller in each month of 2024.
As a result of the smaller flock, egg production has dropped slightly from 8.1 billion eggs per month in
2021 to 7.75 billion eggs per month in December 2024. Importantly, however, per capita production of
eggs in the U.S. has not dipped below per capita consumption of eggs in any year between 2022 and the present. Meanwhile, the total value of egg production has risen significantly, from $8.8 billion in 2021 to
$19.4 billion in 2022 and $17.9 billion in 2023.
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PBJ
#12
How do you propose this would be done?
