The Department of Defense (DOD) awarded Johns Hopkins University a $1.5 million research grant, for a project to develop policies to bolster the resilience of U.S. pharmaceutical supply chains.

An April 8 release from the university details concerns over the quality, transparency and resiliency of global pharmaceutical supply chains, and how the U.S. has become overly reliant on that network. Vulnerabilities in those supply chains were laid bare during drug shortages brought on by the pandemic, said associate professor Dr. Mariana Socal, and with this project, the university hopes to prevent future disruptions by looking into how federal decision-making can improve sourcing, investments and regulatory strategies.

“These efforts are needed to fully understand the strengths and vulnerabilities of the complicated and interconnected pharmaceutical supply chains,” Socal added. 

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This comes as President Donald Trump has hinted at the possibility of "major" tariffs on pharmaceutical imports, as part of a larger push to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. According to a 2019 report from the Food and Drug Administration, less than 30% of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities supplying the U.S. market were based in the country at the time, with the vast majority having been gradually moved overseas to the European Union (26%), India (18%) and China (13%) over the last few decades.