How can governments apply the lessons of coronavirus to the next pandemic? Many want to bring drug manufacturing back home — but it is not that simple. Here’s why 👇 on.ft.com/3ARobXj
It’s hard to create ready-for-action back-up factories, and harder still to plan for future crises. When Emergent BioSolutions tried to scale up one of its plants, tens of millions of Johnson & Johnson doses were contaminated with AstraZeneca’s vaccine ft.com/content/842698…
Attempts to untangle the global vaccine supply chain could end up concentrating capacity in the richest countries and entrenching inequalities. One solution is ‘stress tests’ to see if manufacturers can provide drugs when a country’s supply is disrupted ft.com/content/842698…
No vaccine is manufactured start-to-finish in one factory or country. Pfizer’s shot has 280 ingredients from 19 countries. The industry would prefer the removal of trade barriers — but some say that is ‘quasi-impossible’ ft.com/content/842698…
Experts fret that governments may pick the wrong technologies or back companies that cannot keep up with innovation. Drugmakers will also need to figure out how to keep staffed facilities ‘semi-switched on’ and ready to go during ‘inter-pandemic periods’ ft.com/content/842698…
Supplies of simpler drugs have also suffered during Covid-19. New York hospitals fought each other for critical medicines supplies, while France is reshoring production of paracetamol. But will one-off government investments be enough in the future? ft.com/content/842698…
Some are putting their hopes in new, nimble technologies, such as adaptable, ‘Ikea kitchen-style’ manufacturing facilities that fit inside a shipping container. It is now up to governments to decide whether to adopt such ideas to fight future pandemics ft.com/content/842698…
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