Cotton, Kaine Introduce Legislation to Help Address Drug Shortages and Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caroline Tabler or Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353
December 4, 2024

Cotton, Kaine Introduce Legislation to Help Address Drug Shortages and Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) today introduced the Protecting Our Essential Medicines Act, legislation to help address drug shortages and vulnerabilities in the drug supply chain by requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to maintain a list of the country of origin of certain critical drugs marketed in the United States.

"Americans deserve to know where their life-saving medicines come from. This legislation requires greater transparency in the sourcing of critical drugs, helping to protect patients and strengthen trust in our healthcare system," said Senator Cotton.

"While we've taken steps in recent years to increase domestic manufacturing of prescription drugs-including in Petersburg, Virginia-we need to do more. I'm glad to join Senator Cotton in introducing this legislation to help address drug shortages and decrease our reliance on pharmaceutical products manufactured in other countries," said Senator Kaine.

Text of the legislation may be found here.

The Protecting Our Essential Medicines Act would:

• Direct the HHS Secretary to establish an interagency task force in consultation with FDA, CDC, DOD, DHS, ASPR, CBP, and ODNI to identify and maintain a list of drugs that are:
• • Critical to the health and safety of U.S. consumers;
  • Those for which a shortage would have adverse health outcomes on patients with chronic conditions; and
  • Countermeasures classified as qualified pandemic or epidemic products.
• Direct the task force to create two subsequent lists - one public and one confidential.
• • The public list would describe the top three countries from which the U.S. imports each drug.
  • The confidential list would describe drugs that are produced exclusively in China.

Earlier this month, the senators introduced the End Drug Shortages Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation to help reduce the prevalence and severity of drug shortages.

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