What Else Didn't We Know About Puerto Rico?

According to the Food and Drug Administration, 13 critical drugs are made only in Puerto Rico. And the country could see a shortage of 40 drugs in all after the decline in production at factories on the island. These shortages could affect treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, childhood leukemia, strokes, cancer, and the HIV virus.

[...]

Another 30 Puerto Rican plants manufacture medical devices and supplies. Baxter International has already warned that lost production days have led to delays in shipments of dextrose and sodium chloride—saline, used for cleaning wounds, treating dehydration, and diluting medications.

[...]

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb [...] warned Congress this week that the situation could blossom into a full-blown public health emergency.

[...]

When globalization opened up markets around the world, companies sought cheap labor to manufacture their goods. This combined with a revolution in just-in-time logistics to centralize production in specific locations, making supplies of virtually everything we rely on more exposed to unforeseen events.

[...]

[Puerto Rico's] near-destruction from two hurricanes has triggered a humanitarian crisis in a territory already ravaged by economic depression and austerity. But it’s also savaged one of the island’s few bright spots amid a decade of disaster: its robust medical manufacturing sector. The future of those plants is uncertain, so the problems related to a single weather event’s devastation could spread across America, causing severe prescription drug and medical supply shortages.

[...]

There are several reasons for this, but the biggest is that the United States doesn’t build into national supply chains the kind of redundancy that would prevent this type of vulnerability. The twin problems of market concentration and relentless demand for exploitable labor have created needless risk. Maybe the Puerto Rican disaster will provide a wake-up call.

  The American Prospect

Nah.

Section 936 of the tax code shielded income originating in Puerto Rico from taxation, and pharmaceutical companies in particular took advantage.

[...]

Hurricane Maria brought an abrupt halt to production at 50 pharmaceutical factories. While most plants were not actually badly damaged, the destruction of the electric grid meant they could not function without generators. Getting the fuel necessary to keep the generators running has proven challenging, given the debris blocking roads.

[...]

Companies are having trouble even finding their workers amid a virtual telecommunications blackout.

[...]

In the endless drive for profit, modern American capitalism builds in vulnerabilities that should not exist.

[...]

If the United States had more companies competing to produce generic versions of prescription drugs, Americans wouldn’t be as reliant on sole-source facilities in areas with cheap labor, controlled by a single monopolist.

And America wouldn't be America.

John Oliver did a segment about a year ago on Puerto Rico's economic crisis and the fact that it was a center of drug manufacturing. And was specifically exempted from protections offered the mainland in more than one case.

Watch.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.