Tennessee Joins 20-State Coalition Warning of National Security Risks in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Tennessee Joins 20-State Coalition Warning of National Security Risks in Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a 20-state letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio alerting the administration to a grave national security risk to the pharmaceutical supply chain that is actively being exploited by Chinese-sourced businesses. The letter identifies national security risks from dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients used in popular compounded GLP-1 drugs and flags concerning allegations that Chinese companies which manufacture fentanyl precursors are now selling weight-loss and other peptides.

"Only legitimate medicines from accountable sources should be allowed into our country," said Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. "Foreign suppliers who exploit weaknesses in our supply chain to import relabeled or adulterated products pose risks to both our public health and our national security. Tennessee will keep working with our federal partners and our fellow states to protect the integrity of medicine in America."

In September 2025, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the creation of a "Green List" of suppliers, which has effectively given Chinese suppliers the ability "to ship unapproved, knock-off products to the United States without detention or inspection." For example, Chinese company Harbin Jixianglong Biotech Co., Ltd. (Harbin) was found to have purchased knock-off semaglutide from a non-Green List facility that was not registered with the FDA. Since Harbin itself was on the Green List, only an FDA on-site visit revealed that Harbin had repackaged and relabeled the non-Green List products under Harbin's name, changed the manufacturing and retest dates, and distributed to the United States.

Attorney General Skrmetti joined the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia in signing the letter.

Read the letter (link).