A Richmond, Virginia, drug company has secured a federal contract worth up to $800 million to manufacture key medicines used to treat COVID-19 patients in what the White House described as a major step in reducing the United States’ reliance on foreign supply chains.
Phlow Corp., the company, has struck a deal with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that’s worth up to $812 million, including a four-year base award of $354 million, the company announced on Tuesday.
Phlow said the partnership will allow the company and its partners to deliver more than 1.6 million doses of five medicines used to treat COVID-19 patients to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.
The company is also working to build the country’s first stockpile intended to secure ingredients that will be used to make “essential medicines” in the United States.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro predicted that historians will look back on the project as a “defining moment” for protecting the U.S. from current and future health threats.
“For far too long, we’ve relied on foreign manufacturing and supply chains for our most important medicines and active pharmaceutical ingredients while placing America’s health, safety, and national security at grave risk,” he said.
“We are now moving swiftly in Trump time to forge an American solution,” Mr. Navarro said.
Lawmakers inside and outside of Washington, D.C., have complained that the U.S. has been far too reliant on foreign supply chains as it raced to secure key equipment and drugs in the battle against COVID-19.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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