The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing Thursday to ask supply chain experts about potential options to prevent future shortages of drugs and other critical goods amid the coronavirus pandemic and reduce reliance on foreign countries like China for such products, FCW reported Thursday.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) mentioned the national security concern posed by vulnerabilities in the supply chain during the hearing
Wynne Briscoe, acting director of the Maryland Small Business Development Center, said the Small Business Administration could help come up a list of U.S.-based alternative suppliers and classify products and services related to such firms using the NAICS codes.
"The SBA would produce the list by contacting all the companies it now works with, or has worked with over the past decade or so, through SBDCs (small business development centers) and other SBA related organizations," Briscoe said. She added the SBDCs and small business groups could help collect and maintain the data.
