A pharmaceutical policy accident: collision of shareholder capitalism and Chinese state capitalism driving the shortage of an essential antibiotic

Our findings suggest possible policy gaps in governance of supply chain resilience. Firstly, disclosure of API suppliers including degree of dependency may better pre-empt bottlenecks, facilitating priority setting for public investments in re-shoring where global API supply currently relies on few, or single plants; secondly, a whole-of-government approach may counter the potential impact of non-pharmaceutical policies on supply chain resilience. Our findings confirm suggestions from previous studies that international data sharing would be beneficial considering the global shortage effects which can emerge from a single point of failure.