Karl Ashley Smith

Ok, what do we think?

USAntibiotics is the only company making amoxicillin pills in the US. They supply about 8% of US amoxicillin. India is the biggest foreign supplier of finished antibiotics to the US. For over a decade, India's amoxicillin started with Chinese Penicillin G. Chinese plants grow it from a mold fed with sugar in large tanks. Penicillin G is turned into 6-APA, the backbone of amoxicillin. China makes most of the 6-APA India imports too. Indian drugmaker Torrent stopped making Penicillin G in 2005 after Chinese imports undercut it. By 2012 the last Indian plants, at Alembic and SPIC, had shut too. Aurobindo restarted Penicillin G at Kakinada in 2024. In 2025 China cut its price about 40 to 50 percent. India answered with import price floors on Penicillin G, 6-APA and amoxicillin. By January 2026 the plant ran at about 9,000 to 10,000 tonnes a year, roughly what India uses. In October 2025 the US Pharmacopeia found that amoxicillin made for the US depends on four starting materials, each made almost entirely in China. The last American plant making penicillin ingredients stopped in 2004.