Why the West has an uphill task challenging China in pharmaceutical ingredients

From rare earth elements to commercial drones, Washington has become all too familiar with the strongest weapons in Beijing’s manufacturing arsenal – the materials and products where China holds a strategic advantage in production, extraction or any other link in the supply chain.

After those near-monopolies provided Chinese policymakers considerable leverage in last year’s trade dispute, US think tanks are asking whether pharmaceuticals represent the next critical dependency. Their concern is...