America’s growing dependency on foreign pharmaceutical suppliers and workers

When I was growing up in New Jersey, Route 53 Morris Plains was a major pharmaceutical manufacturing center employing many American workers. Globalization apparently put an end to that, and as a result America is becoming increasingly dependent on both China and India pharmaceutical suppliers and visa workers. Today roughly 90% of medicines prescribed in the U.S. are imported from other countries.

China

China is a significant supplier of both active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished drug products. From Charted: U.S. Pharmaceutical Drug Imports from China (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-u-s-pharmaceutical-drug-imports-from-china/) we obtain a list of the most commonly active pharmaceutical ingredients imported from China.

India

America imports a significant amount of pharmaceuticals from India, especially cheaper generic drugs. Per United States Imports from India of Pharmaceutical products (https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/imports/india/pharmaceutical-products), America imported a total of $107.59 billion worth from India.

In addition, several India pharmaceuticals companies have US subsidiaries. For example Lupin Limited is based in Mumbai, India (https://www.lupin.com/); its U.S. subsidiary, Lupin Pharmaceuticals, has multiple American facilities, each of which employs H-1B visa workers as shown below (https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=lupin+pharmaceuticals+inc&job=&city=&year=all+years). Lupin Pharmaceuticals has additional SBU Lupin Research employing H-1B (not shown).

Other nations

America also imports pharmaceuticals from Germany, Belgium, South Korea, Italy, France, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, and Guatemala. (U.S. Pharmaceutical Imports By Country 2025, https://tradeint.com/insights/us-pharmaceutical-imports-by-country/)

Visa Workers

American pharmacist professionals are being displaced by F-1 Curricular Practical Training/Optional Practical Training (https://www.myvisajobs.com/employers/search.aspx), H-1B (http://www.guestworkervisas.com/h1b_jobtitle.php?term=Pharma), and H-4 EAD (https://www.myvisajobs.com/employers/search.aspx). The F-1 CPT/OPT program is especially problematic for two reasons: denies recent American graduates entry level jobs to pay student loans; exempt from Social Security/Medicare FICA payroll taxes, allowing employers to ‘dodge’ those taxes, resulting in the looming Social Security shortfall.