WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Earl L. "Buddy Carter" (GA-01), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, led a hearing titled Made in America: Strengthening Domestic Manufacturing and Our Health Care Supply Chain.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, we are bringing manufacturing back to America,” said Chairman Carter. “Since the start of this year – the start of President Trump’s second term – Johnson & Johnson broke ground on a new $2 billion facility in North Carolina, Amgen announced a $900 million manufacturing expansion in Ohio, AbbVie committed $10 billion to invest in the United States, and Sanofi announced plans to invest at least $20 billion. And these are just a few examples; this is just the start.”

Watch the full hearing here.

Below are key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Congressman Buddy Carter (GA-01): “If Congress were to act on the recommendations today, how quickly could our domestic capacity expand? If we were to act on this, how quickly can we get this up and running?” Mr. Cashman: “With the right policy framework, we could significantly expand production with 18 to 24 months. We're currently running three active production lines; we have two crews on first shift and another crew on second shift. By simply adding new crews, to adding shifts so we can have three shifts per day on each line, we could dramatically increase our production.”

Congressman Troy Balderson (OH-12): “We know that a recent analysis showed that around half of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for prescription medications in the U.S come from India and the EU. With around 12 percent being manufactured domestically here in the U.S. from your perspective and with your great experience, how do you believe we can increase the share in a sustainable way?” Dr. Piervincenzi: “I think the first layer is to increase the production of API, [which] will require new facilities and substantial new investments and time. There are shorter term ways to bridge the gap and to create a more secure supply chain, including through friend shoring and other purchasing opportunities. And finally, also considering the potentially even higher vulnerability to the starting materials upstream of the APIs, which may be even more highly concentrated in adversary countries and coming to the U.S. through India and Europe.”

Congressman Jay Obernolte: (CA-23): “One of the things [Mr. Cashman] suggested was long-term supply contracts, but if you are someone that has consistent demand for a drug like amoxicillin, and you've experienced a situation where supply is constrained and therefore the market reacts by raising prices up to astronomical levels, you would think that would incentivize you, just from a financial perspective, to diversify your supply chains.”