Bringing drug manufacturing back to USA ...

[dogtag]

That sure sounds good and patriotic to boot, especially
in this time of crisis, but let's not forget why it went
over to China in the first place - Cost.
When everything gets back to normal and we do actually
carry out the threat and gear up for producing vital drugs
here at home, there's going to be a howl probably audible
on the Moon about the price we're going to have to pay
for those very drugs.

[Vern Humphrey]

That sure sounds good and patriotic to boot, especially
in this time of crisis, but let's not forget why it went
over to China in the first place - Cost.
When everything gets back to normal and we do actually
carry out the threat and gear up for producing vital drugs
here at home, there's going to be a howl probably audible
on the Moon about the price we're going to have to pay
for those very drugs.

The first step is to lock all US patents -- don't allow foreign nations to produce drugs developed in the US unless they pay their share of the development costs.

[togor]

The first step is to lock all US patents -- don't allow foreign nations to produce drugs developed in the US unless they pay their share of the development costs.

That's now how it works. You cannot stop molecules from being assembled in another country. One word: jurisdiction.

I make a new kick-ass drug in the USA and get a US patent. Great for my US sales. But there's nothing stopping some Euros from making it and selling it there unless I get a European patent. And if the drug is awesome enough, then the EU will force me to license it as being in the EU interest. India built a pharma industry on not recognizing foreign patents, on the excuse that they had all these people who needed modern medicine.

Iceland doesn't recognize anyone's patents. I worked for a company that built an operation in Reykjavik for a few years until they could license some US patents on sufficiently favorable terms.