'The time to worry is now': The coronavirus in China could threaten pharma's ingredient sourcing

Source: STAT News

As a novel coronavirus spreads through China and rattles the rest of the world, the pharmaceutical industry is on guard over the adequacy of its global supply chain.

Over the past decade, China has become a bigger player in the market for active pharmaceutical ingredients, which are the building blocks found in each drug. China is now home to 13% of all facilities that make ingredients for medicines that are sold in the U.S., according to the Food and Drug Administration. By comparison, 28% of such facilities are in the U.S. and 26% are in the European Union.

Most ingredient production is concentrated in Zhejiang province, which is something of a manufacturing hub that lies along the East China Sea, far from the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began, explained a source familiar with the Chinese pharmaceutical market but who asked not to be named.

For full details, please click here.