'Made in Europe’ plan to tackle drug shortages faces hurdles
Writing in Politico, Jillian Deutsch covers the French government's idea for tackling rising drug shortages: bringing the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) back to Europe.
Quoted in the article, Jayasree K. Iyer, Executive Director of the Access to Medicine Foundation speaks about the fragility of antibiotic supply chains and what this can mean for access to antibiotics, particularly for people living in low- and middle-income countries. Jayasree describes "the vaccines route" as an option for strengthening the API and antibiotics markets, which entails spreading financial incentives across multiple manufacturers.
From the article: Iyer said governments can help share the cost of producing ingredients with private companies, but they need to address some key questions: Who is going to pay for antibiotics? Will the price of antibiotics increase? Will antibiotics remain affordable?
“It’s not as easy as [saying] let’s start manufacturing things in Europe... The fundamental problem is the fact the cost of production of antibiotics … is actually higher here than in other parts of the world.”