Building strategic independence for the European pharmaceutical industry

Medicine shortages are a long-standing issue for Europe, but the pandemic further highlighted Europe’s dependence on global supply chains and its vulnerabilities in accessing essential goods. As a result, approaches to the issue began to change.

The ‘Building strategic independence for the European pharmaceutical industry’ debate on 22 March 2022 considered the challenges in building a robust supply chain for pharmaceuticals, links to wider industrial strategies, and how better-quality information could uncover solutions.

Shortages happen most frequently with both older and cheaper products on the one hand, and more complex and innovative medicines on the other, explained Thyra de Jongh, Principal Consultant at Technopolis Group, who launched the debate with an overview of the latest study of pharmaceutical supply chains in Europe. She added that about half the problems are due to quality issues in manufacturing, although a lack of data hinders efforts to discover where the problems lie.

Looking at the links with wider issues of strategic autonomy, Giacomo Mattinò, Head of Unit for Food, Retail and Health at the European Commission Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: “The challenge is to make a synthesis between public health and industrial policy so they don’t contradict each other. It is important to keep borders open and address the need for free movement of goods.”

The pharmaceutical industry is critically important to the European Union, added Cristian-Silvian Busoi, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). “The industry in Europe is uniquely placed to play a key role in our economic recovery, resilience and future growth, but only if the innovation drivers are in place and if the appropriate financial support accompanies the legislative framework.”

Dramatic increases in demand for medicines during the pandemic was a stress test for the pharmaceutical industry, explained Elke Groote, Head of EU Relations at Novartis. She argued that stockpiling, transport, procurement systems, and the reporting and defining of supply chains should all be examined.

Ruth Lopert, Senior Health Economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), highlighted that supply issues were long-standing. “We need some global coordination to gauge the extent of the problem,” she said, explaining there were differences in definitions of shortages, as well as in the ways shortages are reported.

Concluding the debate, moderator and Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe, Tamsin Rose noted that the participants consistently pointed to a lack of good quality data which could help identify solutions, that both international and local shortages have been identified – a sign of the complexity of the issue, and that there were open questions about procurement models and how to maintain Europe’s position as an industrial leader.