Euroviews. Europe’s dangerous medicine dependency is the Achilles heel of its defence strategy

With geopolitical tensions rising, globalisation can have threatening side effects. Especially when it comes to essential goods.

Imagine, for example, that the supply chain of antibiotics is interrupted in the midst of an escalating conflict. This is not a far-fetched scenario. 80-90% of the world's antibiotics are made in Asia - mostly China.

Without these essential medicines, routine surgeries become high-risk procedures, and easily treatable infections could turn fatal. It is easy for foreign actors to turn this dependency into a critical vulnerability — one that could severely undermine Europe’s security and defense capabilities.

Without antibiotics, our health systems would simply collapse.

Once a leader in medicine production, Europe now depends on Asia for 60–80% of its pharmaceutical supply. Price pressure on cheap generics, along with higher labour and environmental costs, are the main drivers of this shift.

However, this relocation has left Europe exposed. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the risks, with hospitals across Europe facing critical shortages of essential medicines, including muscle relaxants needed for emergency intubation.

Even today, all European countries struggle with medicine shortages, largely due to fragile supply chains that rely on long, complex value chains and just-in-time deliveries.

In response to persistent medicine shortages, EU member states called for a Critical Medicines Act in May 2023.

The goal of the act is to map vulnerabilities in the supply chains of critical medicines, support European production and diversify supply chains. The act should also improve the overall sustainability of the (generic) medicine market, with procurement criteria that reward the sustainability of