Governing Global Pharmaceutical Dependencies

Executive argument

Dependence becomes a security problem when it is opaque, concentrated, difficult to substitute and exposed to correlated shocks.

Assessing exposure

Assessment should cover ingredients, materials, packaging, equipment, data services and logistics, combining concentration, criticality, substitutability and recovery time.

Cooperative resilience

Trusted-country agreements, regulatory reliance, shared surveillance and coordinated reserves can reduce risk more efficiently than indiscriminate reshoring.

Conclusion

The aim is not autarky but sufficient diversity, visibility and collective capacity to withstand disruption.

Evidence notes and limits

This perspective proposes an analytical framing; it does not report an empirical study, systematic review or validated measurement. The sources below provide policy context. MSI’s recommendations remain its own interpretation and do not imply source endorsement.

Selected references

• DHSC and NHS England (2025), Managing a robust and resilient supply of medicines · accessed 13 October 2026
• DHSC (2025), Accompanying data pack · accessed 13 October 2026

Authorship, interests and review

Institutional authorship: Medicines Security Institute. Enquiries and corrections are overseen by the Founder & Executive Director. Independent peer review is not claimed. This record has no verified publication-specific funding or conflict disclosure; readers may request clarification through the research office.

Read the expanded full working-paper manuscript (October 2026 draft) →

Version record

September 2026: introductory record. 13 October 2026: clarified publication type, aligned downloadable text, added source notes and review limits. Substantive research expansion will be separately dated and reviewed.