European industry outlines key trade and supply chain needs to respond to COVID-19

The European industry is now working around the clock to ensure continued supply of critical medicines and medical and protective equipment (e.g. diagnostic tests, ventilators, protective masks, gloves and gowns, Intensive Care Unit medicines and equipment, and protective clothing) to patients and healthcare workers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We fully understand the pressure countries and their healthcare systems are under, but we are at the same time concerned by an increase in government restrictions affecting medical and protective equipment and medicines (from raw materials to finished pharmaceutical forms). These measures are having a serious and immediate impact on the globally integrated supply chains that ensure quality, safety, innovation and distribution across the health sector.

As a result, a group of industry sectors involved in healthcare supply chains, including Cefic, has sent a letter to all Trade Ministers of the EU Member States with a set of recommendations to help manufacturers meet the exponential rise in demand for medicines and medical equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.