Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) on Wednesday introduced a bill to end US dependence on Chinese-manufactured pharmaceuticals after China threatened to cut America’s access to vital drugs.

The bill will take two years to phase in.

“The Chinese Communist Party has threatened to cut off America’s access to vital drugs in the midst of a pandemic caused by its own failures. It’s time to pull America’s supply chains for life-saving medicine out of China and make the CCP pay for contributing to this global emergency,” said Cotton.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s outrageous threats to withhold lifesaving drugs from the U.S. endangers public health and should open our eyes to our dangerous over-reliance on China in our medical supply chain,” said Gallagher. “This is a national security imperative that to many Americans, is a matter of life and death. It’s past time for us to develop an aggressive plan to move critical pharmaceutical supply chains away from China.”

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Via a press release from Senator Tom Cotton:

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) will tomorrow introduce the Protecting our Pharmaceutical Supply Chain from China Act, which would end U.S. dependence on China for pharmaceutical manufacturing. The bill’s key restrictions would go into effect in 2022 and have no impact on the current coronavirus pandemic. No FDA resources will be diverted to begin implementation. Specifically, the bill will: Track active pharmaceutical ingredients through an FDA registry. Prohibit pharmaceutical purchases from China or products with active pharmaceutical ingredients created in China*. Create transparency in the supply chain by instituting a country of origin label of all imported drugs. Provide economic incentives for manufacturing drugs and medical equipment in the United States.

The Chinese Communist Party has threatened to cut off America's access to vital drugs in the midst of a pandemic caused by its own failures. It's time to pull America's supply chains for life-saving medicine out of China. https://t.co/XrBorsdynQ — Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 19, 2020

“Told you China would pay,” Cotton said.

Told you China would pay. https://t.co/GKFQGWMoW0 — Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 19, 2020

Listen to this interview on Rose Unplugged with Rosemary Gibson, the author of China Rx, on just how vulnerable the US is for depending on China for pharmaceuticals:

Rosemary Gibson testified on Capitol Hill and explained how China makes most generic drugs and therefore control the health of much of the world.

AUDIO: