President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday aimed at bolstering domestic prescription drug manufacturing and expediting the approval process for U.S. pharmaceutical plants, signaling a continued push to reduce America’s reliance on foreign drug imports.
Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is tasked with cutting unnecessary regulatory requirements, streamlining facility reviews, and working proactively with U.S.-based drugmakers to provide early guidance before production sites are operational, according to Fox Business.
“We don’t want to be buying our pharmaceuticals from other countries because if we’re in a war, we’re in a problem, we want to be able to make our own,” Trump said in a White House fact sheet. “As we invest in the future, we will permanently bring our medical supply chains back home. We will produce our medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and treatments right here in the United States.”
The order also calls for the FDA to increase inspection fees for foreign manufacturing facilities and enhance enforcement measures around the reporting of active ingredient sources by overseas producers. Additionally, the agency is instructed to consider publicly naming facilities that fail to comply with regulatory standards.
According to the White House fact sheet, it can currently take five to 10 years to build new pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in the U.S.—a timeline the administration deemed “unacceptable” given national security concerns. Currently, the United States imports more than $200 billion worth of prescription drugs each year, reports Fox Business.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will also play a role in the administration’s initiative, with the order directing it to expedite the approval of facilities designed to manufacture prescription drugs and their components.
During the executive order signing, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced that the agency plans to start conducting surprise inspections of overseas drug manufacturing plants. Makary noted that such inspections would “move the oversight to be more in line with the U.S.”
The move follows months of threats from Trump to impose tariffs on pharmaceutical imports—products that had largely remained exempt from past trade disputes due to concerns about consumer harm. Just last month, the administration began formally investigating imports of both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, citing the extensive reliance on foreign manufacturing as a national security risk.
