COVID-19 'seems to love' pharma's biggest production centers

A worrying aspect of the COVID-19 outbreak, so far as drugmakers and patients are concerned, is that the virus has taken an unerring liking to regions that also happen to be the major production centers for many of the world’s medicines.

The point was made partly in jest by Adrian van den Hoven (pictured above, center), one of the most important figures in ensuring medicine supply to Europe, but he made it to underline the extent of the challenge that the industry could be facing.

Mr van den Hoven is director general of Medicines for Europe, the trade group for generics and biosimilars manufacturers that jointly organized an event in Brussels on Tuesday in the context of new European Commission healthcare priorities. The other organizer was the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the European Union (EU), under the auspice of the Croatian Presidency to the European Council.