China holds a rapidly expanding position in the global biologics and biosimilars market, driven by heavy government support, regulatory reforms, and massive investments in biotech hubs like Shanghai and Suzhou.
CPA welcomes new proposals from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aimed at rebuilding domestic generic drug manufacturing, strengthening oversight of foreign pharmaceutical production, and improving supply chain transparency.
Everyone agrees, in particular that reliance on China for key ingredients used to make medicines is risky; and everyone agrees that further up market – in advanced biotech – China is becoming an unmatched rival that could easily shrink America’s role in drug innovation.
It’s the second month in a row now that the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging has taken up the question of our woeful generics supply chain. This time, however, Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), started the hearing off by touching on a key topic in pharmaceuticals: the cost equation can no longer override the quality equation.
Last year, Americans spent more than $15 billion on Novo Nordisk’s diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. The active ingredient in both treatments — semaglutide— has rapidly become one of the world’s most commercially successful medicines.
Zydus Pharmaceuticals, one of India’s largest generic drug makers, recalled over 22,000 bottles of a cholesterol medication on Dec. 30, 2025. AvKare, a Tennessee-based pharmaceuticals distribution company that relies on imports, recalled around 7,900 cartons of Rosuvastatin, a widely used generic statin, a day later.
Clothes are labeled. Most food is labeled. Even your car has its manufacturing country of origin stamped onto the door panel. Pharmaceuticals on the other hand, one of the biggest import items and certainly one most critical to our daily health safety and security, usually do not come with any labels at all.
U.S. drugmakers are rapidly shifting the front end of America’s pharmaceutical ecosystem (e.g. discovery, early-stage-development, and the IP engine) to China through a surge of licensing deals and cross-border partnerships.
The Senate Special Committee on Aging was back at it this week discussing the woeful predicament of the domestic generic drug industry and its import-facing supply chain. This time, the Committee heard from four generic drug makers opposed to advocacy groups and Washington think tanks.
Witnesses at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 29 titled “The Future of Biotech” discussed ways to facilitate reshoring and making it attractive to expand in the U.S. and conduct R&D here instead of in China.
