From the pages of In Business magazine.
There may be some light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel, but even when the dust finally settles, a great deal of damage will have been done. In addition to the death toll, highly anticipated events like the NCAA basketball tournament were canceled, as were business events such as Epic’s Experts Group Meeting (XGM) 2020. Life in general ground to a halt as people extended their winter “cocooning” to stay healthy.
I’ll let others debate the extent to which we overreacted (or underreacted) to COVID-19, but one development that should get everyone’s attention is a not-so-veiled threat in an article in Xinhua, which is China’s state-run media agency and basically the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. It would appear that access to life-saving drugs could be cut off, particularly in the United States, which would teach us a lesson about engaging in trade wars.
According to Xinhua, the U.S. is to blame for a pandemic that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan and spread around the world, infecting and killing thousands. The article may have been blowing smoke, but it claimed that China could impose pharmaceutical export controls that would hamstring our efforts to fight COVID-19.
If that doesn’t strike you as a disturbing threat, you’re probably unaware of China’s grip on the global supply chain, especially for drug therapies. To illustrate the point, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced a coronavirus-related drug shortage, noting that we could not get enough raw components for the drugs because they are made in China.
While the FDA did not identify the components, it’s evident that we are dangerously reliant on China for the critical components needed to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The U.S. might rule the roost in drug research, but the manufacturing of these therapies has moved overseas, especially to China and India. Perhaps our allies in New Dehli can and will do more, but the current reality is that China manufactures upwards of 90 percent of U.S. antibiotics, 70 percent of pain-killing acetaminophen, and about 40 percent of heparin (for the treatment of heart disease).
Clearly, it’s time to start unwinding this, even if it costs more to manufacture the drugs here. Someday soon, the recovery in tourism, air travel, events, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average will commence; as it does, we should have a national conversation about our dangerous dependence on China.
Click here to sign up for the free IB ezine — your twice-weekly resource for local business news, analysis, voices, and the names you need to know. If you are not already a subscriber to In Business magazine, be sure to sign up for our monthly print edition here.
