Medical Supply Chains and National Security: Manufacturing the Future  

For decades, the United States benefited from medical supply chains optimized for efficiency and low cost. That model concentrated much of its critical manufacturing capacity overseas—from sterile injectables and key pharmaceutical starting materials to device components—and has left patients exposed to geopolitical disruption, quality failures, and shortages. Natural disasters, cyberattacks, and demand surges can also disrupt supply at any point, from production to delivery. But no country makes everything, and full onshoring is neither realistic nor the goal. The challenge is to build a resilient and competitive system comprising targeted domestic capacity, trusted allied production, diversified sourcing, strategic inventory, stronger coordination among the supply chain and government to identify shortages earlier, and advanced technologies, including AI. Resilience depends not only on where products are made, but also on the pharmaceutical distribution infrastructure that helps maintain access to medicines during disruptions. This session will examine how we can design such a system for the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, and explore where they diverge in their understanding of what resilience requires.