Some 10,000 federal health workers lost their jobs earlier this month--among them, a group of regulators who help new medicines get approved. If Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn't reverse course, American patients will suffer, and half a century of U.S. leadership in pharmaceutical innovation could come to a precipitous end.

U.S. dominance in medicine shouldn't be taken for granted. China's drug industry is racing ahead, thanks to government investment and ambitious regulatory reform (that included aggressive hiring). Once known for supplying raw ingredients and manufacturing copycat drugs, China is now second only to the U.S. in the development of new medicines. In the........

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