EU will avoid medicine shortage, industry chief says

EU will avoid medicine shortage, industry chief says
# 02 April 2020 18:58 (UTC +04:00)

European Union countries will have access to the medicines they need to care for coronavirus sufferers, the bloc’s industry chief Thierry Breton said on Thursday, adding pharmaceutical companies were doubling production to address shortages, APA reports citing Reuters.

The coronavirus pandemic has placed a huge strain on hospitals in Italy, Spain, France, and elsewhere in Europe as intensive care units fill up with tens of thousands of patients suffering the same illness.

Hospital executives and doctors of nine European countries said in an open letter on Wednesday they only had up to two weeks worth of supplies of some medicines and urged greater European collaboration.

Breton said the European Commission had anticipated the supply crunch.

“We foresaw there would be tensions over a number of medicines, notably those associated to intensive care treatment,” Breton told France Inter radio.

“Industry players have been summoned. Today, they are doubling production and I think we’re going to be able to address the situation,” he said, without elaborating.

Many countries around the world rely on China, the source of the outbreak, for drug ingredients and now find themselves grappling with how to avoid shortages.

France has said 40% of its drug ingredients are imported from China, where the coronavirus forced the closure of factories early in the year. They are only now beginning to reopen.

EU documents show that barely a month before Europe scrambled to find masks, ventilators and testing kits, national governments were telling Brussels their healthcare systems were ready and there was no need to order more stocks.

Officials with the European federation of pharmaceutical industries (EFPIA) were not immediately reachable for comment.

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