Nearly one year ago, we came together to tell Americans that "protecting America's medical supplies is a bipartisan national security priority." We highlighted America's overreliance on China for life-saving drugs and the need to act quickly in the interest of national security.
That idea has come to fruition, as we are pleased to announce the United States-Abraham Accords Cooperation and Security Act of 2024 (H.R. 7155).
This bipartisan friend-shoring legislation calls for the establishment of an FDA bureau in the Abraham Accords region, creating a staging ground for technical assistance and friend-shoring collaboration between the U.S. and Abraham Accords countries and for the development of life-saving drugs. This bill will help fortify and diversify our medical supply chains away from China to a region with more strategic and amicable partners.
Not only does this legislation represent a significant step forward in national security—it's common sense. Considering the declining trade flow and the increasing chip war with China, we must be vigilant about our health care supply chains.
As the United States seeks to reduce its reliance on medical products produced in non-allied nations that could weaponize such dependence, it should look to the Abraham Accords countries' robust biopharmaceutical industries to help our nation diversify and protect our access to crucial medical supply chains that don't rely on China.
More than 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for drugs sold in the U.S. come from overseas, primarily China and India. While India is the largest producer of generic medications in the world, it depends on China for most of the APIs in the drugs it produces.
The future well-being of our medical and pharmaceutical supply chains impacts every single American. We, a Republican from Tennessee and a Democrat from California, along with our team of original cosponsors, Reps. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Mike Levin (D-Ca.), Scott Peters (D-Ca.), and Randy Weber (R-Tex.), all see the writing on the wall.
While we would love to be able to produce everything domestically, that just isn't possible at this time, given capacity constraints. In the meantime, we should engage our allies in a friend-shoring capacity.
This legislation is not just an opportunity to collaborate with varied economies; it is a national security imperative that can lead to optimized production of life-saving drugs and medical supplies. It's common sense.
There is currently no comprehensive list of every biopharmaceutical product manufactured in China and imported by the U.S. That's the first problem this bill will address. A list of the essential medical products, biopharmaceuticals, and key raw pharmaceutical ingredients that are primarily manufactured in each country of concern should be submitted to Congress. We also need to see a list of biotech and life science companies in Israel and partnering countries that could utilize this new Abraham Accords FDA Bureau.
The next steps include collaborating with Abraham Accords nations on good manufacturing practices for medical products regulated by the FDA, sharing regulator information between the bureau and interested parties in the region, and offering technical assistance on manufacturing drugs.
This legislation has broad support amongst health care advocacy organizations and business leaders in Abraham Accord counties, including the U.S. Israel Education Association. Business leaders in the Abraham Accords countries are highly supportive of establishing an FDA bureau in the region to propel such enterprises and have identified investment in biopharmaceutical infrastructure as a key part of their national economic development programs.
The United States-Abraham Accords Cooperation and Security Act of 2024 is a common-sense solution to help diversify and protect the American medical product supply chains, in facilitating collaboration with allied business leaders and governments to make strategic investments in medical product manufacturing capacity outside of China. The legislation will also encourage closer ties between Arab states and Israel, furthering peace in the Abraham Accords region through closer economic and scientific collaborations.
Last year, we said "we need to begin this process as soon as possible because we have a big hill to climb."
Now, we are climbing that hill; we just need a little help from our friends to reach the peak.
Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) who serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Ca.) who serves on the Committee on Financial Services are alumni of the U.S. Israel Education Association's bipartisan Congressional tour to Israel.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
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