NEW DELHI – Significant disruptions to supplies of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from China caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led India to fundamentally rethink its supply chains and the structure of its pharmaceutical industry, according to industry executives and consultants.
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee held the first of its two hearings on the supply chains for a variety of products vital to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While electoral politics were on full display during the hearing, a recurrent theme was the need to bring supply chains back to the Western Hemisphere as a solution to the fraudulent products shipped to the U.S. from Hong Kong and China.
Scaling up to manufacture a massive volume of a COVID-19 vaccine, drug or innovative device that’s still in early stage development is easier said than done, especially in a global pandemic that has the supply chain stretched beyond capacity.
Responding to COVID-19’s wakeup call as it exposes the risks of relying heavily on foreign biopharma supply chains, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) signed a four-year, $354 million agreement with a team of private industry partners, led by Phlow Corp., to expand U.S. manufacturing of essential medicines at risk of shortage during the pandemic and in future public health emergencies.
Against the backdrop of the global spread of COVID-19, India announced restrictions Tuesday on the export of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and formulations of those ingredients.
BEIJING – China’s partial shutdown caused by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak has sparked global fears of a disrupted supply chain of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), as the country is a major exporter. Drugs that many depend on, such as ibuprofen and acarbose, could be affected.
BEIJING – China’s partial shutdown caused by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak has sparked global fears of a disrupted supply chain of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), as the country is a major exporter. Drugs that many depend on, such as ibuprofen and acarbose, could be affected.
How vulnerable is the U.S. biopharma supply if China were to halt exports of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)? No one knows. "We cannot assess the extent of U.S. dependence on China," Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), said in testimony to a House subcommittee Wednesday.
BEIJING – China's position as a global power in active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) could be jeopardized by the ongoing and worsening trade war with the U.S. Perhaps more worrisome for the pharma industry, any disruption to Chinese supply chains could have a serious impact on drug manufacturing and accessibility globally.