Securing pharmaceutical supply chains

Although supply chains for prescription drugs have long been strained, the COVID-19 pandemic made Americans aware of the global nature of those supply chains. One central policy question relates to how much we continue to rely on intermediate products sourced from other nations. Addressing this issue is a key part of how we make pharmaceutical drug supply chains more resilient in the face of demand and supply shocks.

On March 15, the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy welcomed Minister Hadja Lahbib of Belgium to put into perspective the role that one nation, Belgium, can play in strengthening pharmaceutical supply chains.

The minister’s remarks were followed by an expert panel discussion that included Tanya Alcorn (Pfizer), Tom Bollyky (Council on Foreign Relations), and Liz Jurinka (Vistria Group and Yale University). The panel was moderated by Marta Wosińska (Brookings) and touched on the dynamics driving supply chain resilience vulnerabilities, the political landscape driving policy, the role of onshoring in the context of securing supply chains, and alternative and complementary policy solutions.

Viewers submitted questions by emailing [email protected] or tweeting to @BrookingsEcon using the hashtag #RxSupplyChain.

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