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National Centers of Excellence in Advanced and Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Act of 2021

Floor Speech

Date: Oct. 19, 2021
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. GUTHRIE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4369, the National Centers of Excellence in Advanced and Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Act, a bill I introduced with my colleague, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone. I enjoyed working with him on this bill.

In 2016, I was proud to work with my fellow committee members on the 21st Century Cures Act, which included legislation to issue grants for institutions of higher education to study the process of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing.

H.R. 4369, which we are considering today, builds on this partnership established in the Cures Act. Advanced and continuous manufacturing for pharmaceuticals is a new technology that allows for drugs to be produced in a continuous stream, helping drugs get into the market faster.

This is something that has become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to ensure that our drug supply chain does not depend too heavily on other countries, such as China.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4369, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GUTHRIE. Madam Speaker, this is an important bill. We have all seen what happened with COVID-19, our dependence on the global supply chain, particularly in pharmaceuticals. It is a national security issue that we have our own production here.

As we saw, we have had shortages during the height of the pandemic, and we are still experiencing other supply chain issues. As we know, those will work themselves out.

Having access to our own pharmaceuticals is not a luxury that we have time for them to work out themselves. We are hopeful that we will get things moving again in a normal supply chain, but we absolutely must take the action necessary to make sure that we make it in America, and we don't depend on countries such as China.

Madam Speaker, I urge the passage of this bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

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