U.S. Pharma Companies Weigh a Shift to North America — and Possibly the U.S. — for Drug Production

Can the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain come home — or, at least, get closer to it?

The COVID-19 pandemic was just the latest in a series of health crises that are awakening the pharma industry to the dangers of relying too heavily on suppliers located thousands of miles from patients. But whether they can successfully make the shift to domestic sourcing remains open to question. 

American pharma companies have demonstrated a marked preference for offshore production for at least the past 20 years, notes Lindsay Dymowski, chief executive officer with Centennial Pharmacy Services. “Most of the Baby Boomers and older have grown up in a world where the majority of drugs are being imported into the U.S.,” she says. And, since the mid-2010s, the industry has seen a continuing steady drop in the value of its product that is domestically sourced and produced, according to Recon Strategy. The result is a system that’s becoming increasingly vulnerable to interruptions in supply, for reasons ranging from disease outbre…