USAntibiotics, the sole-licensed American maker of penicillin-based Amoxil® (amoxicillin) and Augmentin® (amoxicillin clavulanate), announced that it has relaunched production of the nation's only Amoxicillin manufacturing facility. When it reaches full production capacity in 2022, it will be able to produce enough Amoxicillin products to meet 100 percent of the nation's demand for these essential medications.
With supply chain issues impacting healthcare, the buildout of U.S. antibiotics capacity is vital to defend America's national security and public health.
"As Americans are trying to get holiday gifts into the country, we have all become painfully aware of the fragility of global supply chains – but this pales in comparison to problems caused by a disruption in obtaining life-saving medications," said Shane Jackson, president of Jackson Healthcare, which purchased the production facility out of bankruptcy in the spring of 2021.
"We are so proud to have taken this step to produce these American-made antibiotics," added Jackson. "It is vital to our nation's health to produce high-quality antibiotics and to build a large enough stockpile of such critical medicine to guarantee availability. It's something no nation can live without."
Currently, 30 percent of all antibiotics prescribed in the U.S. are Amoxicillin products.
"The ability to produce these antibiotics in the United States strengthens our ability to fight threats from pandemics to bio-terrorism to common diseases," Jackson said. "They are essential to the health and safety of our nation."
USAntibiotics' manufacturing facility, located in Upper East Tennessee, is currently producing 1.4 million tablets daily but will ramp up in the weeks and months ahead. It has the capacity to produce 2.2 billion tablets and 312 million capsules of Amoxicillin on an annual basis. In package form, that equates to approximately 48 million bottles of tablets and 13.5 million bottles of capsules containing the life-saving medications.
All USAntibiotics products are made with ingredients sourced from the United States and Europe.
USAntibiotics can also eventually store enough Amoxicillin to meet five-years' worth of demand of its products.
In 2008, every U.S.-administered dose of Amoxil and Augmentin was produced in the U.S. By 2019, however, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that 80 percent of the supply of US antibiotics were made in China.
The supply chain shortage has hit across all segments of healthcare, and the American Society of Health- System Pharmacists and the Food and Drug Administration have an evolving list of more than 100 medications that are in short supply.
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