Weber Times

Representatives Blake Moore (UT-01), Brad R. Wenstrup, D.P.M. (OH-02), August Pfluger (TX-11), and Mark Green, M.D. (TN-07) have issued a Request for Information (RFI) aimed at strengthening and enhancing domestic medical supply chains.

The RFI seeks input from independent experts, stakeholders, industry leaders, and coalition groups to inform Congressional efforts on this matter. The move builds on previous initiatives by the 118th Congress, including the recent vote on the BIOSECURE Act—a bill designed to prevent American patient data and taxpayer dollars from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries' biotechnology companies.

"U.S. supply chains must be free from dependency on foreign adversaries – we cannot rely on the Chinese Communist Party for genomic testing or basic pharmaceutical ingredients nor depend on Russia for fine chemical production," said a statement accompanying the release of the RFI.

The request aims to gather insights that will help incentivize, support, and strengthen domestic medical manufacturing and supply chains with trusted allies and partners. It invites responses addressing economic obstacles to bringing medical supply chains onshore, lessons learned in diversifying supply chains, feedback on priority medical products for onshoring or diversification, dependencies on suppliers in adversary countries, timeframes for transitioning supply chains domestically or to friendly nations, barriers to domestic production such as regulatory challenges and workforce issues, sourcing of upstream inputs from adversarial countries, programs aiding advanced manufacturing technologies, effective public-private partnerships for accelerating pharmaceutical manufacturing relocation, policies promoting near-shoring and friend-shoring through trade agreements with foreign partners, and long-term strategies for sustaining competitive domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing over the next two decades.

Responses should be submitted to Wenstrup.RFI@mail.house.gov no later than October 4, 2024.