America faces growing pressure to secure its pharmaceutical supply chains, but protectionist policies—especially those centered on tariffs and strongarming domestic production—offer the illusion of safety while threatening affordability, access, and global competitiveness. These approaches risk raising drug prices and reducing patients’ access to medicine. As policymakers grapple with how best to bolster supply chains, they must distinguish between resilience and isolation. Supply chain security lies not in cutting off trade, but in fostering redundancy, streamlining regulation, and creating conditions that make the U.S. a magnet for strategic, high-value pharmaceutical production.
When the federal government tries to pressure companies into producing more in the U.S., the effect is a rise in production costs. These costs are passed through the supply chain, ultimately landing on patients in the form of higher pharmaceutical prices and elevated insurance premiums, as well as increased taxpayer spending on public health programs. For a country where one in four Americans already skips prescriptions due to cost, pushing prices up is dangerous health policy.
Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal.