EU draws up plans to stockpile scarce medicines

Brussels is seeking to end a Europe-wide medicine shortage by stockpiling drugs and obliging manufacturers to guarantee supplies, Report informs referring to the Financial Times.

The EU will also try to reduce reliance on China and increase domestic production capacity.

A surge in winter sickness in the northern hemisphere and reduced exports from China have meant patients have found it difficult to get hold of some basic medicines such as penicillin and paracetamol. Almost all 27 EU member states and the UK have reported shortages.

Under pressure from governments, the commission has said it will intervene to ensure “strategic autonomy” in basic medicines through a “systemic industrial policy”.

It said it would soon propose legislation to “secure access to medicines for all patients in need and to avoid any market disruption of medicines”. The reform would require “stronger obligations for supply, earlier notification of shortages and withdrawals and enhanced transparency of stocks”, the commission said.

The move is the latest in a series of EU measures to reduce reliance on imports after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains. The bloc has proposed huge subsidies for domestic silicon chip production and emergency export bans on strategically important products.

It is likely to be fiercely resisted by the pharmaceutical industry, which says governments should pay more for drugs and loosen labelling and market authorization rules if they want to boost supply.

The commission said the shortages were not a temporary problem but “a systemic challenge with numerous vulnerabilities”, including overreliance on a few countries for certain products, and the way drugs are regulated and bought.

The EU’s Health Emergency and Response Authority (Hera), established in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, could organize joint procurements for several countries to improve supply.