According to the Financial Times, Sandoz, the worlds largest generics drugmaker spun off from Novartis and headquartered in Switzerland, has called on the European Commission to investigate imports from China of a key ingredient used in a common antibiotic, alleging unfair state subsidies.

Citing a complaint filed in March this year, Sandoz said that imports from China of amoxicillin trihydrate reflect "significant state intervention" and "non-market pricing". This is the active ingredient in one of Europes most widely used antibiotics.

Sandoz has asked the Commission to take "corrective" measures to safeguard the EU industry and the "resilience of supply of this critical medicinal ingredient". The company urged the imposition of additional tariffs to prevent subsidized "ultra-low-priced" imports from flooding the market.

Sandoz said prices of Chinese imports are about 47% lower than those in the EU, making production within the bloc difficult and reinforcing dependence on Asia for pharmaceutical ingredients. According to data from healthcare data provider IQVIA, an estimated 80% of amoxicillin active pharmaceutical ingredients are imported from Asia.

Sandoz said the Commission has not yet responded to its complaint. The company acknowledged that a full anti-dumping investigation could take up to one year, but has requested priority review of its filing.

Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously denied claims that China has caused overcapacity, saying such assertions "deviate from objective facts" and adding that "protectionism does not enhance competitiveness, and blaming others does not solve ones own problems." (da/u)

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