Drug supply

Medical Association: “Total dependence” on China looms

For years, there has been a failure to reduce the great dependence on Chinese producers.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Jade GAO)

Once again, the German Medical Association is warning of excessive dependence on China for the supply of medicines.

The last European plant producing the active ingredient metamizole will close in 2025. The product is better known under the trade name Novalgin and has an analgesic, antispasmodic and antipyretic effect. "When a large pharmaceutical company like Euroapi closes its site in Germany after more than 100 years and moves its metamizole production to China, then something is wrong," said Harald Mayer from ÖAK on Wednesday.

(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL)

EU strategy called for
The closure of the site would lead to "total dependence on the Chinese market" for this active ingredient. "However, we in Europe must strive for exactly the opposite: autonomy in the supply of the population with the most important medicines - including painkillers," said Mayer, Vice President of the ÖÄK and Federal Chairman of the Curia of Employed Physicians.

The EU must commit itself to the independent production of medicines in Europe and "finally develop a strategy against the overexploitation of its own medicine production", said Johannes Steinhart, ÖAK President. At the beginning of the year, the ÖÄK, in a joint resolution with the German Medical Association, called on the EU and the pharmaceutical industry to take decisive and united action against drug supply bottlenecks.