US drug shortages stem from poor regulation, not China

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In 2025, there were 216 active drug shortages in the U.S., impacting Americans’ access to lifesaving medications. The resilience of our pharmaceuticals supply chains has been increasingly framed as a national security issue , including by the White House — and rightly so, as Covid-19 magnified the massive costs of a health system ill-equipped to care for its population.

But this national security framing has heavily skewed toward a U.S.-China competition lens, distracting from the real root causes of our pharmaceuticals supply chain vulnerabilities: inadequate regulation of an industry that tends to prioritize profit over America’s health.

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