ICYMI: At Hearing, Warren Highlights Risk of DoD Drug Supply Produced Overseas, Military Leader Agrees on the Need For Domestic Drug Manufacturing
A report reveals supply chain for a third of all drugs on the FDA essential medicines list is at very high risk because the ingredients are sourced from foreign countries.
“This overreliance gives our adversaries the power to restrict DoD access to drugs when we need to be able to treat our men and women in uniform.”
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned Mr. Keith M. Bass, nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) pharmaceutical supply chain vulnerabilities. Mr. Bass committed to purchasing essential drugs from domestic manufacturers and working to expand DoD's capabilities of manufacturing essential drugs in-house.
Senator Warren has raised concerns about the DoD’s overreliance on foreign drug manufacturers and ensuing supply chain risks, including drug shortages and their impact on service members’ health and national security.
“DoD should prioritize domestic purchasing, but there are some instances where it makes sense for DOD to actually produce the medication itself,” said the senator.
Mr. Bass agreed with the Senator on the need to have onshore capabilities: “The health and well-being of all of our military members is a priority… I commit to working with you and your staff.”
Senator Warren secured provisions in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act that requires the Pentagon to establish a plan to ensure access to safe, high-quality pharmaceutical products and eliminate or mitigate risks in the pharmacy supply chain, including the feasibility of establishing a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility owned and operated by the Department of Defense (DoD).
Transcript: Hearings to examine the nominations of Troy Meink, Michael Duffy, Emil Michael, and Keith Bass
Senate Armed Services Committee
March 27, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, healthcare for our men and women in uniform is critical in peacetime and even more so in wartime. Mr. Bass, if you are confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, you're going to be responsible for ensuring nearly 10 million service members and their families receive quality health care, including timely access to medication. I am very concerned about our overreliance on foreign nations for the very medications that put the health of service members at risk and our national security along with it.
DoD spends over $5 billion on prescription drugs each year. It's a lot of money. But in November 2023, the Defense Logistics Agency released a report revealing that the supply chain for a third of all drugs on the FDA essential medicines list is at very high risk. Why? Because the ingredients from these drugs are sourced from China, or we don't even know where they're sourced from.
So, Mr. Bass, do you agree that it is a threat to our readiness and to the potential health of our service members that DoD’s pharmaceutical supply chain relies so heavily on China?
Mr. Keith Bass: Thank you, Senator, and thank you again for meeting with me. I do agree that it is a threat. It is a vulnerability.
Senator Warren: This overreliance gives our adversaries the power to restrict DoD access to drugs when we need to be able to treat our men and women in uniform. It also leaves us with much less visibility into the practices of foreign manufacturers, which, by the way, routinely have quality issues that threaten both the efficacy and the safety of these drugs. For these reasons, the DoD report recommends boosting the production of finished drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and other key starting materials so that we are making more of this right here in the United States.
Mr. Bass, do you think DoD should work to onshore the critical drugs the military needs, including writing contracts that require manufacturers to onshore these capabilities?
Mr. Bass: Thank you, Senator. I do. I think that we need to work with our industrial base, our private and public partners, and we need to have rapid response contracts, and we need to make sure that we have either onshore or near-shore capabilities.
Senator Warren: Good. I'm glad to hear you say this. DoD should prioritize domestic purchasing, but there are some instances where it makes sense for DoD to actually produce the medication itself, like when the DoD is the sole customer for that medication. One example: the adenovirus vaccine, which is critical in preventing serious respiratory illness among service members, particularly service members in basic training. DoD developed the vaccine and licensed it then to private industry, but because the military is basically the only buyer, DoD couldn't find a commercial manufacturer for nearly a decade. DoD eventually had to pay a private manufacturer nearly $100 million just to resume production. And during the years that the private sector refused to manufacture for DoD, there were thousands of cases of adenovirus per month and service members who actually died.
So Mr. Bass, if confirmed, will you commit to expanding DoD's capabilities of producing essential drugs in-house to reduce risk and to secure DoD's medical supply chain?
Mr. Bass: Thank you, Senator. The health and well-being of all of our military members is a priority. I'm not familiar with the report, but I commit to working with you and your staff.
Senator Warren: All right, I appreciate that, because this is a serious problem, and ultimately, these are investments that will pay off. One expert estimated that the DoD would make its money back in three years after building its own adenovirus manufacturing facility. This is a long-standing, bipartisan concern. I worked with Senator Rubio for years on this, and last year, the Senate adopted our language directing the DoD to enter into contracts to domestically manufactured drugs and drug components that are currently sourced overseas and that are used exclusively by the military. I want to see us get that in the final version of the NDAA. There's more work to do, and I look forward to working with you on this, Mr. Bass. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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