Almost $1 Billion Later, the US Still Can’t Manufacture Medical Gloves

Almost $1 Billion Later, the US Still Can’t Manufacture Medical Gloves

From Big Take Asia by Bloomberg

July 23, 2026 · 16 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges faced by the US in manufacturing medical gloves despite significant investment and efforts to reshore production.

After the pandemic-era run on medical gloves, the US government set a plan in motion to reshore manufacturing. Roughly six years and almost $1 billion later, America is once again facing potential shortages of medical gloves because of supply chain disruptions stemming from the war in Iran. On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder and health care industry reporter Anna Edney break down why US efforts to make American medical gloves have largely failed, what it says about reshoring manufacturing writ large and where the industry goes from here.  Read more:  Almost $1 Billion Later, the US Still Can’t Make a Medical Glove We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at  Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer. Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Laura Newcombe and Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Reported by Anna Edney; Edited by Naomi Shavin. Fact-checking by Victor Swezey; Engineering by Sean Carter. Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Host: Sarah Holder

Guest: Anna Edney

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bloomberg

Places: US, Iran

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