Brazil sets up a special team to increase its own raw materials

Affected by the epidemic, many countries (regions) in the world are seeking to independently develop the API industry and reduce their dependence on external imports! In addition to Europe, the United States, India and other countries and regions, Brazil has also established a special team to conduct research on the independent supply of APIs.


Europe: ENDPOINTS reported that in February 2020, Sanofi announced that it plans to spin off its six existing API production bases into an independent company to create a leading API company. The new company is headquartered in France. It is estimated that by 2022, the new company will become the world's second largest API company, balancing Europe's "heavy dependence on APIs from Asia" (mainly China and India).


United States: In May 2020, the US government signed a US$354 million contract with the start-up pharmaceutical company Phlow Corporation to produce generic drugs and APIs that are in short supply. At the same time, it establishes the United States’ first strategic pharmaceutical ingredient (API) reserve to reduce Dependence on overseas supply (mainly China and India). The start-up company will mainly produce APIs (including precursors) through continuous production methods.


India: India has a multi-pronged approach. From the early stage to the production-related incentives, it heavily supports the independent production of multiple APIs/intermediates. The current plan restricts the import of chemicals/intermediates. The plan allows the industry to import up to 30 % Chemicals/intermediates. The remaining 70% will give priority to using Indian products. The government will also invest in large-scale construction of civil engineering, construction of API industrial parks, R&D centers and government contracting of infrastructure.

According to ictq: According to Decree No. 2792/20, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) has established a team to promote the pharmaceutical industry within the country. This initiative called GT-Farma puts forward a technology development policy and encourages the innovation and production of APIs in the country.


It was originally planned that the team will last for 180 days, but this period may be extended. With the intensification of the new coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), there is a crisis of lack of imported raw materials.


In an interview with the newspaper Fato, Paulo Alvim, the Minister of Entrepreneur and Innovation of MCTI, emphasized: "Basically, today, India and China make more than 90% of APIs, and Europe has a small amount, which creates dependence."


The virus outbreak has aroused alarm in the domestic and global pharmaceutical industry: over-reliance on imported APIs for the production of medicines (possibly a crisis). The fact is, for example, Brazil has more than 200 million residents and is fundamentally dependent on imports.


According to Henrique Tada, President of the National Association of Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Alanac), Brazil has become one of the world's leading drug producers. He said: "In the 1980s, we became the fifth largest producer of APIs in the world. However, with the opening of the market in the early 1990s, (domestic) API manufacturing was severely damaged." He is also a member of the MCTI working group one.


Trend

In this sense, the MCTI initiative aims to promote the redevelopment of the pharmaceutical industry in order to consolidate the autonomy of the pharmaceutical industry.


However, Norberto Prestes, executive chairman of the Brazilian Pharmaceutical Input Industry Association (Abiquifi), pointed out that it is difficult for a country to gain full autonomy in the production of APIs. However, he pointed out that the MCTI initiative can bring positive results.


He said: "In a globalized world, it is difficult to not rely on imports at all. However, we at least need to have technological autonomy in the manufacturing of APIs.


According to data from professional consulting company IQVIA, Brazil is currently the world's sixth largest pharmaceutical market. However, fundamentally speaking, this still depends on imported inputs. Between September 2018 and September 2019 alone, sales in this industry were approximately 119 billion reais.