By Peter J. Pitts and Robert Goldberg

On February 3^rd, 2026, President Donald Trump signed into law a bill establishing a permanent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) office in the Abraham Accords region. In doing so, it transforms the Accords from a diplomatic milestone into a practical engine for medical advancement, ensuring that innovations from Abraham Accords countries reach global markets faster and more efficiently than ever before. Such an office will allow the United States to combine the innovation and expertise of countries such as Israel with the manufacturing and distribution excellence of other Abraham Accords countries to sustain America's overextended medical supply chain.  

At a time when Washington is actively seeking practical ways to "friend-shore" critical supply chains away from adversarial nations such as China, this move solidifies the role of Abraham Accords nations as America's primary partners in medical innovation and public health security. 

Securing the American Medicine Cabinet 

The motivation for this office is as much about national security as it is about medicine. Lawmakers have expressed growing concern about the United States’ overreliance on China for essential medical products and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). This legislation identifies Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco as high-trust alternatives capable of meeting America's most urgent security needs. 

Establishing the FDA office will support regional governments and companies in meeting stringent FDA production standards. This regulatory guidance will position the Abraham Accords partners as preferred suppliers to the U.S. healthcare system and government depots, ensuring reliable, high-quality sources of essential medical products. 

The initiative is designed to establish cost-efficient, high-quality manufacturing hubs across the region, with a particular focus on sterile injectable medicines and vaccines. By building this capacity, Abraham Accords partners can meaningfully challenge and ultimately reduce China's leverage over critical nodes in the global pharmaceutical supply chain. 

This enhanced regional manufacturing capability is crucial for replenishing the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve (SAPIR). By diversifying trusted production sources, the United States will be better insulated from geopolitical shocks and supply disruptions, thereby safeguarding national health security. 

From Innovation to Industrialization

Beyond traditional pharmaceuticals, Israel is rapidly becoming a strategic hub for industrialing of the most sophisticated "must-have" technologies in modern medicine. The local FDA presence will provide the regulatory infrastructure needed to scale Israel's leadership in three areas critical to sustaining American leadership in the global biotechnology race.

Israel already offers a working model for such partnerships. Under the leadership of its CEO, Richard Francis, Teva Pharmaceuticals expanded into the UAE and Morocco, prioritizing supply resilience through regional collaboration. Manufacturing capacity in Morocco was strengthened, reinforcing local supply chains. In the UAE, Teva deployed AI-driven logistics and advanced inventory systems to manage distribution and respond quickly to shortages across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. 

The establishment of this FDA office represents a rare strategic "triple win." It provides a staging ground for a regional network where Israeli innovation meets scalable regional capacity, incentivizes additional nations to join the Abraham Accords to benefit from American regulatory integration, and secures the American medicine cabinet by strengthening trusted supply chains. At the same time, it lays the foundation for Israel's next generation of medical breakthroughs and cements a future in which Israel, together with its Abraham Accords partners, can make the Middle East a hub for exporting medical innovation. 

The regional FDA office builds on the trajectory of new regional partnerships, enhances regional capacity, and enables members of the Abraham Accords Club to translate diplomatic innovation into structurally embedded economic interdependence and a resilient health security architecture. 

Peter Pitts is President of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and a former Associate Commissioner of the FDA. He was the primary architect of the legislation establishing the regional FDA office.  

Robert Goldberg is the Center's Vice President.