How globalization produces our drugs

I've already kvetched about some of the ridiculous (and extremely carbon-intensive) supply chains that are coming to light as a result of all the talk and discussion about US tariffs. Well, a new report shows the journey of a single anti-anxiety drug as it makes its way across the globe, sometimes as long as 52,000 km, en route to a Canadian consumer. The report follows the production of clonazepam, a common anxiety and insomnia drug, but it could have been any drug. 

The active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) start their journey in Guangzhou and Hangzhou in China, before being shipped to Shanghai and then Mumbai and Bangalore in India. The excipients (substances added to stabilize and help patients' bodies absorb the APIs) are produced separately in China, before being sent to India or Germany to be combined with the API into tablets. The tablets are then shipped to New Jersey in the USA to be tested and then to Tennessee to be repacked into smaller bottles. From there, they are transported to a distribution centre in the Greater Toronto Area to be distributed to Vancouver, Winnipeg, or wherever needed. The total journey can be as much a 52,000 kilometers (and God knows how much in carbon emissions).

Wow.

Of course, this raises all sorts of questions. Why can the pills not be repacked in New Jersey rather than going all the way to Tennessee? In fact, why can't the testing and repacking all be done in Toronto? Or in Germany, or India, or in China for that matter? In fact, why can't the whole process be done in China, or in India, or even in Canada?

I'm sure the initial ingredients are probably available in Canada, and there is no compelling reason that I can see for any part of the process to be carried out anywhere else. So, why don't we produce our own drugs? Sure, Canadian labour is way more expensive than Chinese or Indian labour, but think of the savings in transportation, fuel, time, and carbon emissions.

The more I find it about how the whole globalized capitalism system the works, the more skeptical and mistrustful I become.