Amid challenges brought by Covid-19, China’s pharmaceutical industrial chain remains competitive and resilient, playing an integral part in continuously bringing stability to the global healthcare ecosystem, industry experts told the China Daily. Currently, 60% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) around the globe are produced in China, said Paul Hudson, CEO of Sanofi. The United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission estimated that China and India manufacture 80% of the world’s APIs, including various active compounds used to treat bacterial infections, cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Mariangela Simao, World Health Organization Assistant Director General for access to medicines, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, said that currently there has been no indication that basic medical supplies have been affected by the pandemic. Because of the anticipated work break during the Chinese Spring Festival, many pharmaceutical companies had stocked up on goods for two to four months before the holiday, which turned out to be a rainy-day preparation for the unexpected novel coronavirus outbreak, Simao said. Although some drug producers were located in Hubei, other manufacturing bases in China were only slightly impacted by the epidemic, she said.

“China is a major raw materials supplier for pharmaceuticals around the world. In these difficult times, it’s extremely important for our industry to maintain an unbroken supply chain so front-line healthcare providers always have access to the high-quality medicines they depend on,” said Chris Ewer, Vice President of Janssen Supply Chain Asia-Pacific. Janssen Pharmaceutica said it is proud that its supply reliability has been maintained with no pharmaceutical shortages during this special period. “Working in close cooperation with Chinese authorities at several levels, as well as with airfreight carriers and other logistics partners, our supply chain made swift operational adjustments to get back to business-as-usual as soon as possible,” Ewer said. Asgar Rangoonwala, President of Xian Janssen said the epidemic’s impact on China-based pharmaceutical MNCs’ production capacity is minor, and the situation has been kept under control.

On March 5, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced it would exempt import tariffs on at least 100 medical items imported from China, including medical gowns and surgical masks. “It turns out that in order to deal with the coronavirus crisis that we think originated in China, China makes all the equipment you need in order to deal with it,” J. Stapleton Roy, a veteran diplomat in Washington, told China Daily.