In their 2018 book, “China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine,” Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh painted a profoundly ominous picture of a world that had changed over the preceding 25 years.

No longer did the United States, Europe and Japan supply 90% of “the key ingredients for the world’s medicines and vitamins.” Instead, “China is the largest global supplier of the active ingredients and chemical building blocks needed to make many prescription drugs, over-the-counter products, and vitamins,” they wrote.

In 2022, China is now the source for approximately 40% of the world’s Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), which are critical to making drugs.

Few in the United States, even among physicians, are fully aware of just how drastic our dependence has become. Here are just a few examples.

·  About 97% of antibiotics used in the United States, including drugs as basic as penicillin and amoxicillin, now come from China.