WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today welcomed key findings from the 100-day review mandated by the Biden-Harris administration’s Executive Order 14017 on “America’s Supply Chains.” Signed in February, CPA supported the Executive Order and called on the administration to “quickly pivot from assessment to action.”
Importantly, the review makes clear that the U.S. government must take action to address vulnerabilities in the supply chains of critical products, including essential medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). CPA welcomes the Biden-Harris administration’s announcement that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “will make an initial commitment of approximately $60 million from the Defense Production Act appropriation in the American Rescue Plan to develop novel platform technologies to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for API.”
“The Biden-Harris administration’s 100-day review is a great step forward to addressing vulnerabilities in the domestic supply chains of critical products and industries,” CPA Chair Zach Mottl said. “Importantly, we are pleased that the review calls for deploying the Defense Production Act (DPA) action to boost domestic production, including expanding capacity of essential medicines. CPA has long called for reshoring essential generics, including API, in order to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign supply chains for these critical products—particularly during times of crisis.”
Specifically, CPA welcomes the following recommendations to address critical vulnerabilities in supply chains, including by deploying the Defense Production Act (DPA); initiating a Section 232 investigation on certain imports; and to support domestic production of critical products, including essential medicines:
- “Deploy the Defense Production Act (DPA) to expand production capacity in critical industries: We recommend establishing a new interagency DPA Action Group to recommend ways to leverage the authorities of the DPA to strengthen supply chain resilience to the extent permitted by law. The DPA has been a powerful tool to expand production of supplies needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been used for years to strengthen Department of Defense supply chains. The DPA has the potential to support investment in other critical sectors and enable industry and government to collaborate more effectively.”
- “Evaluate whether to initiate a Section 232 investigation on imports of neodymium magnets: Neodymium (NdFeB) permanent magnets play a key role in motors and other devices, and are important to both defense and civilian industrial uses. Yet the U.S. is heavily dependent on imports for this critical product. We recommend that the Department of Commerce evaluate whether to initiate an investigation into neodymium permanent magnets under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.”
- “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the Defense Production Act (DPA) and building on current public-private partnerships, will establish a public-private consortium for advanced manufacturing and onshoring of domestic essential medicines production. The consortium’s first task will be to select 50-100 critical drugs, drawn from the Food and Drug Administration’s essential medicines list, to be the focus of an enhanced onshoring effort.”
- “HHS will make an initial commitment of approximately $60 million from the Defense Production Act appropriation in the American Rescue Plan to develop novel platform technologies to increase domestic manufacturing capacity for API. Greater API production domestically will help reduce reliance on global supply chains for medications that are in shortage, particularly during times of increased public health need.”
