The Czech Republic has submitted a proposal to the European Commission (EC) for a Czech penicillin factory, Health Minister Vlastimil Valek (TOP 09) announced in a discussion show on TV Nova yesterday.
He said it was premature to talk about the region in which the factory would be built.
Last December, Valek said that the construction of the penicillin factory should start by the end of the government’s term, but did not elaborate. He also said that the date of the beginning of construction could be announced before the end of last year or in the first two weeks of this year.
Yesterday, Valek explained that the process had been delayed by a sectoral analysis of the pharmaceutical industry prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Valek discussed how to produce penicillin in the Czech Republic with both Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela (STAN) and Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura (ODS).
“This requires approval from the European Commission,” Valek said. “We agreed on the best model in this respect. Minister Sikela presented this model in the past few days. We are now waiting for the Commission’s opinion. If it noted our proposal, we would start building. We hope it will be quick.”
In recent years, the Czech Republic has faced repeated shortages in the supply of certain drugs, for example antibiotics, including penicillin. The reasons for these shortages vary.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) also spoke this week about the need to strengthen the Czech Republic’s self-sufficiency in the development and production of medicines. He admitted, however, that further shortages of medicines could be expected, and the European authorities had estimated they would last for around three years.
