The manufacturing sites and the supply chains are already qualified, the processes validated.
Yes, but do those manufacturing sites and the supply chains keep on making the newly developed product, and for how long? Or do they go on to the next product to develop once the cheaper suppliers are up to speed?
What I'm getting at is how much production capacity really exists in the US, and how fast can additional production lines be themselves produced? Maybe it's different in Big Pharma, but my experience in "modest" manufacturing (mostly 100 to 300 employee plants) is that creating new production lines, esp. if a new or renovated-to-purpose building is required, is not exactly snap-your-fingers stuff. WW2 timelines would be disastrous for millions of our meds-dependent population.
There were about fifty production facilities in Puerto Rico before the hurricane. Some prior movement of pharmaceuticals to other locations was due to a change in the tax code, which raised costs on the manufacturing operations.
The recent reveal of the extent of political corruption on the island, provides an additional inkling of the conditions under which these businesses endured a “squeeze.” Galt in action under the Wesley Mouch influence.