VOXEurop Article – 11/03/2020

Since two years, EFCG has been advocating for a comprehensive set of measures to reduce Europe’s dependence on China for our essential APIs. These are listed in our position paper, which has now also been mentioned in this extremely well written article on Europe’s excessive reliance on China for our essential medicines. Here is an abstract:

“The COVID-19 outbreak has revived fears over acute drug shortages in Europe, sparking calls to repatriate the production of pharmaceutical ingredients from China. But rebuilding capacity would take years, if it were even possible.

Given Europe’s over-reliance on the “factory of the world”, there is little doubt that the safe, sustainable supply of essential medicines is now in jeopardy.
Interestingly, it’s not the new, more costly drugs that are the most vulnerable. It is the generics — the cheaper equivalents to off-patent originals, which play a critical role in ensuring access to quality healthcare across Europe — that are in trouble.

It is time, in other words, to repatriate the production of essential APIs to Europe. Without a long term comprehensive approach at the European level to spur investments, emulate R&D in critical raw materials, and fast-track the approval for alternate ingredients, Europe is unlikely to recover its independence. This was the finding of a briefing paper by EFCG, the European APIs manufacturers’ lobby group in Brussels.”

The full article is available here.