Covid-19 has rocked the U.S., infecting half a million people to date. While the global health crisis has led to widespread shortages of drugs and medical supplies, including masks and ventilators, it has also raised questions about where this country’s antibiotics are produced, and whether the pandemic might affect supplies.
Many Americans, for example, are prescribed amoxicillin — a penicillin based antibiotic — for bacterial infections, such as ear or sinus infections. If you look at it, the pill bottle may say the drug comes from Aurobindo, one of the largest Indian drug makers. But the drug is produced, sterilized, pressed, packaged and shipped by a complex and opaque network of global companies and trading firms that move it towards hospitals, clinics and retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens. The starting point, experts agree, is usually the same: by some estimates, 90 percent of the world’s supply of antibiotics originate at huge chemical and pharmaceutical factor
Subscribe or login to read the rest.
Subscribers get full access to:
- Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
- A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
- A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our
Subscriptions page for details.
