The Critical Medicines Alliance, launched in Brussels on Wednesday (April 24), is the sign of a “wake-up call” towards a stronger pharmaceutical industry in the EU, French Minister for Industry and Energy Roland Lescure told Euractiv.

The Alliance for Critical Medicines was created to relocate drug production in Europe, and to combat shortages. Made up of healthcare professionals, industry representatives, and public authorities, the aim is to strengthen the production of medicines in Europe.

“There’s a lot of work to be done at member state level, particularly in terms of stock management and delivery to patients. Not everything can be settled at the national level. We need a European policy,” said Lescure.

The Alliance aims to push for more exchange of information between member states to anticipate tensions and respond more rapidly.

“It also aims to change the rules governing public procurement. Many medicines are purchased by public authorities. If we change the rules governing public procurement, we can buy more French and European products, which will make a very real difference to shortages,” Lescure added.

The launch of the Alliance comes on the eve of the European elections in June, and more than three years after the COVID-19 crisis, which put a spotlight on the weaknesses of the EU pharmaceutical industry, leading to mask shortages and medicine shortages during winter 2022.

“There has been a collective wake-up call in Europe. If we can build up a sufficiently strong critical mass of countries interested in sovereign drug production, we’ll be able to convince the others,” said the French minister.

“It’s like the nuclear alliance. We started out with eleven members and now we have fifteen, more than half the member states. The advantage of alliances is that they allow for closer cooperation, without necessarily convincing all 27,” he added.

In Brussels on the same Wednesday, a manifesto was also launched and signed by eight member states (Netherlands, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, Cyprus, and Romania), “in favor of a coordinated investment plan to facilitate relocation.”

Asked about the purpose of the manifesto, the minister said there was a need to coordinate relocation plans within Europe and find appropriate economic support mechanisms.

“This is one of the issues we are pushing for in our manifesto: how can we subsidise relocation projects to ensure a better guarantee of drug supply and a “greener” supply,” he said, and added:

“I don’t want us to fund lame ducks. I want us to finance either for reasons of sovereignty or for environmental reasons”.

However, the pharmaceutical industry has long regarded the environmental standards imposed by the EU, as one of the obstacles to Europe’s pharmaceutical competitiveness.

“It’s to our credit that our production is fairly clean, but this is one of the major issues that the Alliance will have to address,” Lescure admitted.

India and China produce 60% to 80% of the active ingredients in medicines sold in Europe, and they sell them 40% cheaper, half of which is due to environmental quality, according to the figures of the Alliance.

“The problem is that our market is open to products manufactured to a lower environmental standard, resulting in imperfect competition. In other words, there is a cost disadvantage, because standards are different,” Lescure warned.

The minister said he was in favour of introducing mirror clauses, to make sure imported products are produced under the same environmental standards as in the EU.

However one of the main risks, is that Asia refuses to sell medicines to Europe anymore because of too high environmental standards, leading to unprecedented shortages.

“To limit this risk, we need to encourage “green” production through price differentials. The idea would be to say that when you buy medicines made in Europe, you’re prepared to pay more for them, because they comply with environmental standards,” Lescure told Euractiv.

The minister pointed out that it would take five to ten years to bring back pharmaceutical production to Europe from Asia.