Public health researchers call for new measures to protect pharmaceutical supply chain

Medical Xpress February 5, 2021
Johns Hopkins University

Shortages of many essential drugs amid the COVID-19 crisis reveal serious vulnerabilities in the systems for supplying and distributing pharmaceuticals in the United States, according to a new report led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In the report, “The Pandemic and the Supply Chain,” the researchers identify multiple problems in the drug supply chain, and then recommend specific policy actions that the Food and Drug Administration and Congress could take to reduce current drug shortages and prevent future shortages—creating incentives for more U.S.-based production of essential pharmaceuticals, for example.

In a commentary published online January 28 in the American Journal of Public Health, several report co-authors outline an agenda to address these challenges.

“The...