November 27, 2023 marked the inaugural meeting of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, a cabinet-level council focused on building and advancing the success of America’s critical supply chains. The meeting commenced the Biden-Harris Administration’s initiative to provide American citizens with domestic access to medicine and vaccines that have previously been inconsistently available.

Boosting the success of national supply chains and manufacturing will advance both U.S. economic and national security, as well as the U.S. economy. Further, as a result, the United States will be able to mitigate domestic drug shortages and increase the production of essential medicines in the United States, limiting reliance on higher-risk foreign suppliers for essential medicine and vaccines. 

As part of nearly thirty actions unveiled to strengthen domestic supply chains, the President will issue a Presidential Determination to broaden the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) authority under Title III of the Defense Production Act. In doing so, the United States will have additional investment opportunities for manufacturing essential medicines and medical countermeasures—critical to national defense.

Once the Presidential Determination has been issued, HHS will be able to ensure the United States has the tools and resources necessary to meet domestic needs for medicine and respond to other public health emergencies. To do so, HHS will appoint a coordinator for Supply Chain Resilience and Shortage and allocate $35 million to developing domestic manufacturing of the materials essential to making critical medicines. It is anticipated that by December 31, 2024, the first quadrennial supply chain review will be complete, and key products and sectors of U.S. economic security will be identified.