As China Dominates Drug Manufacturing, Expert Says US Should Protect Medicine as a Strategic Asset

Chinese workers preparing to destroy fake medicines seized in Beijing, on March 14, 2013. Chinese companies are increasingly dominating the manufacturing of the global pharmaceutical market, a development that raises national security concerns in the United States and elsewhere. STR/AFP/Getty Images

As Chinese companies are increasingly dominating the global pharmaceutical market, an expert says it is high time for U.S. policymakers to start treating medicine as a strategic asset and to ensure the American public has a healthy reserve of essential drugs laid away in case of a crisis.

Rosemary Gibson, a senior adviser at the Hastings Center, said on May 7 that it would be a grave mistake for the United States to rely on a single country to make drugs that Americans rely on for their health and basic survival.