Report Says DoD Reliance on Foreign Drugmakers Poses Security Risk

The Department of Defense (DoD) is overly reliant on foreign drug supply chains, a problem that could spell big trouble not only for the military, but the entire country, says a new report from the DOD’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

“The DoD’s reliance on foreign suppliers for pharmaceuticals is a public health, readiness and national security risk,” the OIG said. “Senior officials … stated that if some countries decide to stop producing [active pharmaceutical ingredients] or shipping them to the domestic manufacturers in the United States, the results could be catastrophic for the entire U.S. pharmaceutical industry.”

The risks have been well-known for years, but the Department of Defense has neither assessed them nor solved any of the problems they present, as required by a 2019 DoD Supply Chain Material Management Policy, the document notes.