Op-Eds

Right now, the U.S. is drifting toward a dangerous dependency. America relies on China for a significant share of the raw ingredients used to manufacture medicines — sometimes as much as 80 to 90 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Meanwhile, 477 FDA-registered drug manufacturing facilities operate in China, yet the FDA inspected only 204 foreign drug and device establishments in fiscal 2024.

At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party is pursuing a deliberate strategy to dominate the pharmaceutical sector — from research to manufacturing to global distribution. As Beijing inches closer to ultimately controlling the pipelines for the world’s most important medicines, the consequences will be profound. Just as nations learned during the pandemic that supply chains are fragile, Americans must recognize the risk of relying on adversaries for new life-saving drugs.

We did not always face this vulnerability. For decades, Americans have led the world in drug innovation. Our universities, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies pioneered breakthroughs that improved and saved millions of lives, such as insulin and the polio vaccine.

But today, that is under direct threat from China.

The landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. China is now the world’s second-largest drug developer and the second-largest market for clinical trials, with Chinese entities accounting for roughly 20 percent of drugs currently under development worldwide. Analysts estimate that about 25 percent of new drug candidates originate from China, and in the first half of 2025, 46 percent of new drug molecules entering human trials came from Chinese laboratories.

These developments are no accident. China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (from 2021 to 2025) explicitly identifies biotechnology as a “pillar” industry and prioritizes developing novel drugs, vaccines and medical technologies. The Chinese government is aggressively recruiting foreign capital, intellectual property and scientific talent to accelerate this effort.

Even more troubling, the system Beijing has created allows drug development to move faster — and often cheaper — because it does not adhere to the same ethical standards required in the U.S. Reports indicate that some clinical trials in China rely on practices that would never meet American standards for informed consent or patient protection. Some of these trials are conducted by the People’s Liberation Army in the Xinjian region where the Uyghur people are under persecution by the Chinese Communist Party. The result of these lower standards is a growing incentive for global pharmaceutical companies to shift early-stage development overseas, hollowing out the clinical research infrastructure that has long anchored innovation in the U.S. 

If this trend continues unchecked, the stakes are enormous. Imagine a future in which the next generation of cancer therapies, antiviral treatments, or lifesaving biologics are not only discovered abroad — but produced and controlled by a strategic adversary.

What happens if a geopolitical crisis arises and the Chinese government decides to restrict exports of essential medicines or the ingredients needed to produce them? Even minor disruptions in generic drug supply chains already create shortages that affect hospitals and pharmacies across America.

This is not simply a health innovation question. It is a national security issue.

The solution is not isolation, but leadership. The U.S. must continue to foster the conditions for pharmaceutical innovation and manufacturing to flourish here at home which has distinguished us on an international stage. For Americans, that means new life saving drugs are being developed and launched in the U.S. faster than other countries. Anti-innovation policies in other countries deter the development of new drugs but China’s aggressive and decisive policies have been threatening the very premise that the U.S. is a leader.

Congress must continue to focus on policies that spur pharmaceutical innovation at home beyond the immediate future because China has and will continue to outpace the U.S. Sensible reforms can protect patients while ensuring the U.S. remains the world’s leading engine of medical innovation.

For generations, American researchers and companies have delivered breakthroughs that changed the course of human health. The next generation of lifesaving medicines should be discovered, developed and produced in the U.S.

The stakes are too high to accept anything less. America must remain the world’s leader in medical innovation — not only for the health of our citizens, but for the safety and security of the free world.