Commentary: Big Pharma Puts China and Profits Over Americans

by Ken Blackwell

Pharmaceutical company executives have been courting President Trump trying to convince him to protect their industry and to continue the cozy relationship between Big Pharma and the government. But Americans voted for change and transparency. With ever-increasing drug prices and decreasing health outcomes, drugmakers’ practices are failing the American public. It’s time for the U.S. government to take a hard stand and hold these corporations accountable.

The pharmaceutical industry weaponizes patents to shield their products from competition to ensure they gain the most profit for the longest amount of time possible. Often granted for minor modifications or insignificant tweaks, these layers of protections allow companies to continue to solely profit from drugs that could go to market at a cheaper price in the form of a generic drug.

This practice, known as “evergreening” or “patent thicketing,” means American patients pay more and wait longer. Generic and biosimilar versions of popular drugs like Humira, Eliquis, and Enbrel were available in Europe years before Americans were allowed access. On average, Americans waited 7.7 years longer than Europeans for lower-cost versions of these medications.

It doesn’t stop there. Since 2014, prescription drug prices in the U.S. have risen by 37%, far exceeding the rate of inflation and are outpacing the wages of many hardworking Americans.

But it’s not just pricing practices that are putting Americans at risk. The industry’s outsourcing of drug production to China adds another layer of concern. I’ve written about the influx of counterfeit drugs from China, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In 2022, the United States imported a staggering $10.3 billion worth of pharmaceuticals from China, a 485% increase from just two years prior. This while China has been known to have quality control issues when it comes to manufacturing pharmaceuticals, potentially leaving Americans at risk.

Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying, “We are worried that the United States is overly reliant on sourcing from foreign manufacturers with a demonstrated pattern of repeatedly violating FDA safety regulations.” Indeed, the FDA has cited Chinese laboratories for failure to maintain records and even failure to ensure that drugs are appropriately tested.

China also dominates the supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which are crucial components in the drug manufacturing process. American drugmakers used to make their own, now they source cheaper ingredients from the government-dominated Chinese suppliers. The fact that American drug companies continue to rely on Chinese manufacturers despite these risks is unconscionable.

They are also leveraging the future. Each year, theft of American intellectual property by China costs the U.S. economy between $225 billion and $600 billion. For production related to the pharmaceutical industry, critical innovations are often duplicated or reverse-engineered by Chinese companies.

The risks posed by this situation are twofold: not only does it harm U.S. economic interests, but it also exposes Americans to the dangers of subpar drugs manufactured abroad. And drug companies seem perfectly content to put profits over people.

President Trump pledged to bring critical manufacturing back to the United States. He promised a “manufacturing renaissance” as part of his economic plan, offering incentives to companies to relocate their manufacturing operations to the U.S. This is an idea that needs to be embraced by policymakers in both parties.

While the U.S. government must hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their high prices and shady practices, it must also take action to ensure that life-saving medicines are being produced here at home, where the American public can trust their quality, safety, and acquire drugs at a lower cost. No longer should American consumers be at the mercy of drug manufacturing companies prioritizing their bottom line over public health.

Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH-6), and members of the Energy and Commerce committee majority, are committed to working with the Trump administration to tell drug companies to move manufacturing out of China to ensure American jobs, increase safety, and put an end to the practice of giving out American intellectual property to our adversaries for free.

This isn’t just about protecting the American economy. It’s about protecting the American people from a pharmaceutical industry that has shown time and time again that it cannot be trusted. It’s time to demand a system that values public health over corporate profits, a system that puts the needs of Americans ahead of the greed of Big Pharma. The future of American healthcare depends on it.

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Ken Blackwell, a distinguished thought leader at the Family Research Council and the America First Policy Institute. He is the vice president of the Council for National Policy.