U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Tom Neely, Chairman of Oxford Pharmaceuticals, have written an opinion piece in Yellowhammer News urging the United States to bring generic drug manufacturing back to domestic facilities. They argue that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted ongoing risks tied to dependence on foreign sources for medications.
“While many of us try our best to forget the COVID pandemic in 2020, one serious issue that was revealed during that chaotic time is still impacting us today—our reliance on other countries for medications. Most Americans are so used to taking medicines that they don’t stop to think where the medicine in their cabinets is coming from. The pandemic revealed how dangerous it is for the United States to be completely reliant on other countries for medications we could be making right here at home.”
They also pointed out economic concerns associated with current supply chains. “Americans are paying the price of Washington’s poor decisions. Last year, we spent $5.7 trillion on health care. Yet, we’re still the sickest and fattest country in the world. It’s embarrassing. I appreciate President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy for wanting to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ Part of this involves producing our own medicine.”
Highlighting a local example, Tuberville and Neely referenced Birmingham-based Oxford Pharmaceuticals as evidence that affordable domestic production is possible: “Alabama is home to such facilities, like Oxford Pharmaceuticals located in Birmingham, Alabama. It produces a generic tablet for a little over one cent per pill. A bottle of 100 doses costs about $1.50 to make. Medicare reimburses that same bottle at more than $13. The money is there—it’s just being siphoned off by a supply chain that rewards middlemen and foreign producers instead of American workers and patients.”
Tuberville and Neely stressed both national security and public health reasons for shifting production back to U.S.-based companies: “Americans deserve better than the status quo. We can’t wait for another pandemic to hit to take this seriously. It isn’t just a health crisis; it’s an urgent national security concern as well. We haven’t been preparing to win in America when it comes to our generic drug supply chain, and we are another disruption away from failure.”
Senator Tuberville serves Alabama in the U.S Senate and participates in committees related to armed services, agriculture, veterans’ affairs, health issues, and aging concerns [source]. Before his political career, he worked as a college football coach [source]. His office has locations throughout Alabama—including Mobile, Huntsville, Hoover, Montgomery, and Dothan—and works on issues such as education policy and workforce development [source]. He focuses on agriculture policy as well as national security matters [source].