Episode description

America’s drug shortage is impacting millions of lives and threatening the US’s national security.  Could China be behind it? Millions are going without the medications they need due to the national drug shortage. Hundreds of drugs that treat cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and more are in serious short supply causing widespread panic and suffering. Twenty-nine-year-old Samantha, who has been on ADHD medication for the past 14 years, says she hasn’t been able to get her prescription filled for months and it’s turning her life up-side-down and negatively impacting her work and relationships.

Phil, an independent pharmacist, says the shortage may force him to close his business. By lunchtime almost every day, Phil says he has at least 20 prescriptions he can’t fill. But the shortage isn’t just compromising Americans’ health, it’s exposed a dangerous vulnerability in our national security. More than 90% of prescriptions written in the US come from India and China. Are American lives being put at risk because of the US’s overreliance on drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients from China, a foreign adversary? Many experts say yes.

Dan Izhaky, CEO of United Safety Technology, raised his hand to make PPE on American soil during Covid. He even received a nearly $100 million award from the US government to get production off the ground. But Dan says, 3 years later, he has nothing to show for it. He says it’s been impossible for his company to compete against Chinese companies backed by China’s communist regime.

China-US relations expert and President of The Jamestown Foundation, Peter Mattis, says the Chinese government is deliberately malicious and capable of callous disregard for those in foreign countries and even their own people. This episode, “Our Dangerous Dependency on China” asks three questions: 1) The current drug shortage is happening during peacetime but what if tensions between the US and China rise and the Chinese government decides to stop sending lifesaving medication and pharmaceuticals to America? 2) Is America prepared for the next global pandemic? 3) Why aren’t critical products like PPE and pharmaceuticals being manufactured in the US?
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