President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to buy certain drugs solely from American factories.
The so-called “Buy American” order could represent a seismic shakeup of the drug industry: No one knows exactly how much of the American drug supply chain is produced abroad, but some experts insist up to 90% of critical generic drugs are made at least partially abroad.
It remains unclear, however, how broadly the order will be implemented — the executive order does not specify what drugs it covers. Instead, the order directs the Food and Drug Administration to decide which medicines will be subject to the new requirements. Certain drugs can also be exempted from the executive order if they’re too expensive to make in the U.S. or the U.S. isn’t already making them...
Direct manufacture of chemicals isn't a major driver of chemical employment, i.e. there are (I suspect) 3 or 4 research-oriented chemists for every one production-oriented chemist in industry. That being said, if this executive order (language here) succeeds in moving more chemical manufacturing to the United States from China and India, that cannot help but impact employment. Developing...
