America's Drugs Come from China

US Pres Bill Clinton Deal With China to Sell Medicine to the USA
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According to US Commerce Dept: 95% Ibuprofen, 91% Hydrocortisone, 70% acetaminophen, 80% of the U.S. supply of all antibiotics are made in China

US Under President Bill Clinton in 2000 Made Deal With China To Import Medicine to America
10-8-18, Epoch Times -- According to a book, “China RX: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine” by Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh ... Chinese drug makers have overtaken, and in some cases, put out of business, many key drug industries by undercutting competitors, stealing from competitors, and cutting corners. In the 1990s, the United States, Europe, and Japan manufactured 90 percent of the global supply of the key ingredients for the world’s medicines and vitamins. Now, 80 percent of active ingredients in medicines come from China and India. While India also makes generic drugs for the United States it, too, is dependent on China for key ingredients to make drugs such as penicillin. 
​China has become the primary source of many crucial medical drugs, including penicillin, heparin, and medications essential for surgeries. -->

<-- The impetus for this shift in the global supply chain can be traced back to 2000, when then-President Bill Clinton was in the final year of his second term. The White House went into overdrive to pass legislation to give China permanent normal trade relations granting the same trade advantages to China as other U.S. trading partners, including low import tariffs. This was done against public opinion, which overwhelmingly opposed the free trade deal.
Chinese drugs fail to meet U.S. quality standards that is exacerbated by the volume of imported drugs. 
In 2014 under Pres Obama Dr. Margaret Hamburg 21st Comm of the U.S. Food and Drug Admin [May 2009 to April 2015] said in a speech in Beijing, the consequences of relying on China to produce vital life-saving drugs. “The risks are greater at every step in our increasingly complex global supply chain networks today. Sometimes these hazards are the result of a lack of quality control … [or] intentional acts of diversion, counterfeiting, or adulteration.”

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China hints at denying Americans life-saving coronavirus drugs
3-13-20, FoxNews -- Though the United States is a global leader in research, much of the manufacturing of life-saving drugs has moved overseas. Beijing China's recent comments should concern all Americans and that China are keenly aware that in a moment of crisis when China can threaten to cut off America from pharmaceutical supplies and life saving drugs ... we are at risk in the USA.

China should use its dominance in antibiotics to reduce medical supplies to the United States
3-11-20, TheTimes.Uk.com -- A leading Chinese economist, Li Daokui delivered a veiled threat at a general meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference raising the prospect of Beijing curbing its exports of pharmaceuticals as a countermeasure in the trade war with the US. By some estimates, America imports 96 per cent of its antibiotics from China.

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USA policymakers worry about China 'weaponizing' drugs
12-20-19, Politico.com -- China is the world's largest producer of generic drugs. More than 90 percent of China's drugs/antibiotics are shipped to the USA. One of the biggest national security threats in the U.S.-China trade war could be to the everyday medicines taken by millions of Americans. The U.S. relies on imported medicines from China in a big way. Antibiotics, over-the-counter pain meds and more are all imported from China. -->

<-- Pres Trump & Chinese Pres Xi Jinping so far have left pharmaceuticals out of the bilateral trade war. While Trump has used national security as a rationale to slap tariffs or trade sanctions on a variety of imports, medical supplies haven’t fallen under such scrutiny.
However, the U.S. is woefully unprepared to address even minor disruptions in the supply of medicines that can be used as a weapon of war against the United States.

Now that the USA depends so greatly on China for our medicines ... how to stop it??
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The hidden perils of drugs imported from China

9-3-19, President Trump has called on US industries to manufacture here at home, instead of outsourcing to China. Drug companies — which now rely on China for active ingredients that go into antibiotics, heart medicines and other drugs we need to stay alive — should be the first to respond to Trump’s plea. That reliance is a threat to national security. And the squalid conditions in many Chinese drug factories pose a health risk to Americans who have to take the medicines.

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