Making Sense · Nov 7, 2026
With Alex Gorsky, Former Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson
On any given day, about 85% of the drugs Americans take are generics, and most of them are still sourced from outside the United States. Alex Gorsky, former chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, told Jerry Lee, J.P. Morgan's global co-head of healthcare investment banking, on Making Sense that this is where the country's drug supply is weakest.
Large drugmakers have moved some production of finished drugs and active ingredients back to the US. The generics that make up most of the volume have not followed.
"Those drugs continue to be sourced from places outside the United States. And that in fact is one of the key bottlenecks that we've identified." — Alex Gorsky
Alex ran Johnson & Johnson as chairman and CEO. His answer to the bottleneck is a mix of stockpiles, idle domestic plants and capacity built with allies, rather than a single policy fix.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 insights that matter.
Key Takeaways
About 85% of US drug volume is generic, and most of it is still sourced outside the US
Branded drugs from the large drugmakers make up the other 15%
COVID showed boards that efficiency had outrun resiliency
No single lever rebuilds US drug manufacturing: stockpiles, idle contract-manufacturing capacity and new US plants all play a part
Allies such as Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean should carry part of the new capacity over 5 to 10 years
AI could compress a 3-year search for a drug compound into a couple of months
Alex expects adoption to start slowly, then accelerate
1. COVID Put Resiliency First
Jerry opened on how boardroom thinking about supply-chain risk has changed over five years, from cost to single sourcing to geographic concentration. Alex called the pandemic the turning point.
COVID showed drug company boards that efficiency had outrun resiliency
Transportation and policy disruptions during the pandemic exposed how little slack the drug supply chain carried. Alex said boards have since pushed toward building redundancy into it.
"I think that COVID-19 was really a seminal point in time for the world, let alone the healthcare system... we need to not only focus on efficiency and effectiveness, but we also need to think about resiliency and redundancy, particularly when we're talking about the healthcare of our nation." — Alex Gorsky
Jerry added that moving production offshore had been a response to market incentives, not a mistake made in isolation.
