The Trump administration said Tuesday that it has awarded a $354 million contract for a private sector team led by a Virginia-based startup called Phlow Corp. to make generic drugs and their ingredients in the United States. Administration officials hailed the deal as an important step in efforts to bring back offshore pharmaceutical manufacturing after the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the risks of those supply chains being mostly in India and China.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how health threats or other sources of instability can threaten America’s medical supply chains, potentially endangering Americans’ health,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. “Working with the private sector, HHS is taking a significant step to rebuild our domestic ability to protect ourselves from health threats by utilizing American-made ingredients and creating new American jobs in the process.”
The contract can be extended for up to a total of $812 million over 10 years, HHS said.
