NAM Urges Congress to Bolster US Medical Supply Chains
The pandemic and more-recent IV fluid shortage have underscored the need to improve resiliency of medtech supply chains.
October 14, 2024
Supply chains are fragile, as we painfully learned during the pandemic and are reminded, yet again, as medical facilities wrestle with a shortage of intravenous (IV) fluids in the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton. Improving medical supply chain resiliency is imperative, and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has a plan for that.
Baxter shuts down IV fluid plant
Flooding from Hurricane Helene shut down a Baxter International plant in Marion, NC, which produces about 60% of IV fluids used in the United States. The shutdown affected a huge number of medical facilities as well as diabetics who rely on in-home dialysis. To make matters worse, the B. Braun factory in Daytona Beach, FL, which also makes IV fluids for the US market, closed down in advance of Hurricane Milton. The two sites account for approximately 85% of the nation’s supply of IV fluids. Fortunately, the B. Braun facility was not seriously affected by the storm and re-opened on Oct. 11, according to reporting from NPR.
In a meeting with members of Congress this month, NAM Managing Vice President of Policy Chris Netram stressed the importance of medical supply chains for the health and safety of Americans and urged legislators to bolster their resiliency. While the IV fluid shortage was not a part of the conversation, which focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the risks and instability of the current medical supply-chain infrastructure, the points made by Netram apply equally.
The federal government's role
In his statement to Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Blake Moore (R-UT), and August Pfluger (R-TX), Netram recommended the following actions the federal government should take to fortify medical supply chains:
Create an environment where small businesses can continue to thrive and where large companies can maintain their pandemic-era practices of “leveraging sources of domestic production when feasible, working with existing smaller suppliers to improve their reliability” and sourcing goods through new suppliers;
streamline FDA’s new-supplier certification process;
take “creative steps to incentivize onshoring, near-shoring and friend-shoring," as opposed to imposing punitive or unworkable requirements to do so;
pass the Medical Supply Chain Resiliency Act (H.R. 4307/S. 2115), which would authorize the president to strategically create new trade agreements specific to medical goods with allies and partners;
strategically refine Section 301 tariffs on imports from China;
restore “immediate research and development expensing and full expensing of capital equipment purchases,” ensuring “that the corporate tax rate does not exceed 21%,” and make the pass-through deduction permanent;
complete “reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and expansion of Pell grant eligibility to short-term training programs,” as well as support solutions that incentivize companies to collaborate to reduce the manufacturing-worker shortage.
Creating incentives that reduce the cost and complexity of moving supply chains can help US manufacturers to be more resilient in the face of a future global crisis and better able to serve patients who depend on these products,” said Netram.
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