New analysis shows that the U.S. has “become increasingly reliant on other countries for antibiotics over the past 30-plus years.” CIDRAP has the news.
The study found that “annual importation of antibiotics increased approximately 26-fold from 1992 through 2024.” India has emerged as a major supplier, and China now “provides U.S. domestic drug manufacturers with more than 60% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) needed to make the finished product.” The study authors further posit that the U.S. “is becoming overdependent on other countries for its antibiotic supply and highly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions that could affect public health.”
The researchers “examined data from USA Trade Online, a platform that tracks monthly U.S. imports of all commodities collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They extracted importation records for…finished dosage forms (FDFs)—i.e., the finished drug product—and APIs from 1992 through 2024.” Over the 33-year study period, “the annual volume of antibiotic FDF imports rose by 2,595%, while annual API imports remained relatively stable.”
API importing “shifted significantly over the study period, with Europe accounting for 75% of API imports in 1992 and Asia accounting for 75% in 2024. China alone accounted for 70.1% of API imports in 2024.” API importation has “become highly concentrated since 2008, with China dominating the space through a combination of government subsidies, lower labor costs, and less environmental regulation.”
