logoalt Hacker News

alephnerdyesterday at 9:51 PM1 replyview on HN

> Then why did I never took an Indian or Chinese made paracetamol, but all generics in my EU country I ever took from the pharmacy ware locally made

Because it was synthesized using Chinese and Indian sourced "Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients" (APIs) [0], both of whom synthesize around 80% of all APIs required by European pharma manufacturers.

The EU is trying to rectify this, especially after COVID when India decided to stop all exports of APIs and pharmaceuticals to Europe in order to prioritize domestic production [1], but it still takes time (they started in 2021, and it'll probably take another 5-7 years to build the critical mass needed to rebuild a domestic ecosystem).

> Meanwhile I can't buy a locally made laptop, smartphone, GPU, it's all Asian made goods

Becuase, as I have kept elucidating on multiple occasions on this thread, the entire ecosystem for these goods simply does not exist in Europe, and no European member state is interested in opening their pocketbooks to subsidize manufacturers to move to Europe in order to begin manufacturing the intermediate parts needed.

Countries like those across ASEAN, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, the US, and India offer millions to billions of dollars in hard cash, land, tax subsidizes, or a mix of all 3 in order to attract or retain manufacturers. EU member states simply does not do the same for electronics. Some of them absolutely do so for biopharma (such as Denmark), but by and large they tend to be exceptions of the rule.

> Pharma gets special privilege over industries like cars, phones or semiconductors, since it deals with people's lives

Ime, Pharma PLIs and incentives are fairly comparable to those that would be provided to electronic industries as well. The same tax sops India gave to attract Apple to TN were similar to those that India gave Novartis and Bayer decades ago, and China has been using the same subsidy program it used to attract electronics manufacturing to attract and become a major player in the biopharma space.

[0] - https://pharmacia.pensoft.net/article/172383/

[1] - https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/05/india-vaccine-heist-shod...


Replies

jack_trippertoday at 9:44 AM

>Because it was synthesized using Chinese and Indian sourced "Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients" (APIs) [0], both of whom synthesize around 80% of all APIs required by European pharma manufacturers.

And the EU pharma companies package it, slap their logos on it and make mega profits selling domestically.

>EU member states simply does not do the same for electronics.

Why do you think that is? Surely with a war next door and China not guaranteed be a cooperator all the time, that would be a priority.