WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Rick Scott announced the Consumer Labeling for Enhanced API Reporting and Legitimate Accountability for Base Entity Listings (CLEAR LABELS) Act to add country of origin labeling requirements to the U.S.’s prescription drug supply chain. Many prescription drugs, and their active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), are manufactured overseas, particularly in Communist China and India, and current federal labeling requirements do not require public disclosure of where those ingredients or finished products are made. As a result, patients, pharmacists, and health care providers often lack visibility into where their medicines are made. The CLEAR LABELS Act would require prescription drug labeling to disclose the original manufacturers of generic drugs and APIs, giving patients, providers, and regulators clear, upfront information about a drug’s origins.

This legislation builds on bipartisan efforts led by Senator Scott as chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, including an investigative report and more than a dozen inquiries to federal agencies and industry leaders requesting information on the U.S.’s dangerous overreliance on foreign-manufactured generic drugs.

Senator Rick Scott said, “Families want to feel safe; they want to know the drugs they take are safe, and they want to support American companies and American jobs. It is alarming just how many medicines Americans depend on are made overseas, in places like Communist China and India with limited transparency and oversight, leaving patients blindsided about where their drugs come from and unknowingly putting themselves at increased risk of death. My CLEAR LABELS Act takes a commonsense approach to fix that by requiring clear disclosure of the original manufacturers of these drugs and their components, known as APIs. Transparency is critical to protecting patient safety, strengthening oversight, and reducing America’s overreliance on foreign drug production. Americans deserve to have confidence that the medicines they take are safe, regulated, and clearly labeled.”

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