At the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) we are building supply chain resilience capabilities focused on a strong domestic manufacturing infrastructure for PPE and critical supplies. Our Industrial Base Management & Supply Chain (IBMSC) Program Office was established to lead our strategic industrial base expansion and innovation.
Throughout the acute phase of the pandemic response, supply chain issues emerged as rate-limiting factors again and again. ASPR’s industrial base management and supply chain work was borne out of the initial supply chain pinches the country experienced in March 2020 when the whole world needed the exact same supplies at the exact same time, and they were all manufactured elsewhere.
Using emergency supplemental appropriations, ASPR built the Office of Industrial Base Management and Supply Chain (IBMSC). IBMSC leads our supply chain resilience efforts by investing in the domestic manufacturing of certain personal protective equipment (PPE) and critical medical supplies and exercising the Department’s Defense Production Act authorities. IBMSC has invested over $17 billion across 87 contracts to expand the domestic industrial base for key materials and products, including PPE.
With our investments, the U.S. will have the capacity to produce 2.3 billion nitrile gloves domestically by March 2024 and 90,000 metric tons of nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), enough raw material to produce an additional 840 million nitrile gloves per year by September 2025. Our investments also resulted in the ability to manufacture 1.5 million more surgical gowns each year in the U.S. than we could in the past, 528 million more surgical masks, and 825 million N95 respirators.
We also have invested more than $325 million to develop domestic production capabilities for critical active pharmaceutical ingredients. As a result, domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers are establishing continuous manufacturing capabilities using technology that requires only a small footprint to make sterile injectables and solid dose form drugs in short supply. Integrated continuous manufacturing enables rapid, on-demand, fully automated production of medicines in a small footprint facility. The technology may increase product quality, be more environmentally friendly and allow the transition from synthesis of API to final formulation without interruption.
To further support domestic manufacturing, we are using the Defense Production Act (DPA) authorities delegated to ASPR by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to protect the public health and medical supply chain and direct needed materials needed for national security.
During the COVID response we issued 71 priority ratings to ensure the materials needed for the manufacturing of vaccines, therapeutics, tests and other critical supplies were available to U.S. health care providers and first responders. Exercising the DPA is a powerful tool that we only deploy when we have to — but it is a critical arrow in our quiver in times of emergency or disaster that ensures materials keep moving through the supply chain to support a unified response.
Finally, we are building a tool that will help us monitor the public health and medical supply chain. With support from our partners, we launched our supply chain control tower early in the pandemic and rely on it to track the downstream supply chain for certain COVID and COVID-adjacent products.
When we see product flow slow down or get tight, we have adjusted our government procurements to avoid exacerbating the problems until product flow regains equilibrium. We also have readied -- and sometimes deployed -- products in the Strategic National Stockpile to release pressure in the system until the supply in the commercial market can meet demand again. The visibility that the control tower has provided has been a game changer for us, and we couldn’t do it without the data the private sector contributes every day.
These combined efforts support a broader U.S. focus on building a world-class American manufacturing base. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, ASPR’s investments have significantly expanded the country’s domestic manufacturing infrastructure and have strengthened American preparedness for future public health threats. Focusing on manufacturing here at home means not relying on imports that can cause supply chain disruptions, and we are fostering innovation and technology and creating jobs.
However, this work is just beginning. It took over 50 years for these industries to leave our shores and it will take robust investments and time to bring these manufacturing capabilities back. It is our hope that IBMSC can continue this critical work. However, the office is currently only funded with limited supplemental appropriations. We are pleased there are funds included in the Senate draft Fiscal Year 2024 budget and hope to see Congress invest in this work.
