‘Cartels are scrambling’: Virus snarls global drug trade
Though some clandestine labs that make fentanyl from scratch have popped up sporadically in Mexico, cartels are still very much reliant upon #Chinese companies to get the precursor #drugs.
Supply chains in China that traffickers rely on for the chemicals to make such profitable drugs as methamphetamine and fentanyl. One of the main suppliers that shut down is in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global outbreak.
Huge amounts of these mail-order components can be traced to a single, state-subsidized company in Wuhan that shut down after the outbreak earlier this year, said Louise Shelley, director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University, which monitors Chinese websites selling fentanyl.
“The quarantine of Wuhan and all the chaos there definitely affected the fentanyl trade, particularly between China and Mexico,” said Ben Westhoff, author of “Fentanyl, Inc.”
Advertised prices across China for precursors of fentanyl, methamphetamine and cutting agents have risen between 25% and 400% since late February, said Logan Pauley, an analyst at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a Washington-based security research nonprofit. So even as drug precursor plants in China are slowly reopening after the worst of the coronavirus crisis there, some cartels have been taking steps to decrease their reliance on overseas suppliers by enlisting scientists to make their own precursor chemicals.
“Because of the coronavirus they’re starting to do it in house,” added Westhoff.
https://apnews.com/4f0a4ca93cc2fee94d386efb13db31a0
8 world top 500 biopharmaceutical companies located in Wuhan
Source: hubei.gov.cn 11/18/2013 10:11:09
The Wuhan National Bioindustry Base (Biolake), founded in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province for only 5 years, has become a gathering place of the well-known bio-pharmaceutical companies and research institutions at home and abroad.
Sanofi Pasteur, a world-known French vaccine company, signed cooperation agreement with China National Pharmaceutical Group and Wuhan East Lake Hi-tech Development Zone in France on Nov 25. It plans to co-create a production base in Biolake International Vaccine Park, with the aim of offering innovative technology and high-quality biological products worldwide.
Till now, eight out of the thirteen world top 500 biopharmaceutical companies have been located in Biolake, the number comes out front among the 26 Chinese bio-industry bases.
The famous companies in the Biolake are America’s Pfizer, Germany’s Bayer, Fresenius Kabi, Thermo Fisher, Honeywell and DuPont Pioneer
The person in charge of Pfizer (China) Research and Development Company said that Biolake’s talents, scientific research and environment attract them to situate the company, which is operated well and has over 400 staffs now.
Located at the Wuhan East Lake National Innovation Demonstration Area, the Wuhan National Bioindustry Base is the second key national industry base built by the Optics Valley of China in 2008 under the guidance of the concept of “100-billion-yuan industries”. With a start-up area of 15 square kilometers, Biolake focuses on building six major parks including Bio-innovation Park, Bio-pharma Park, Bio-agriculture Park, Bio-manufacturing Park, Medical Device Park and Medical Health Park, to create a new bioindustry city integrating functions such as R & D, incubation, production, logistics, administration and living. Biolake’s six parks are expected to achieve total revenue of over RMB 200 billion yuan by 2018, thus becoming world-class bioindustry parks. (hubei.gov.cn)
http://en.hubei.gov.cn/news/newslist/201311/t20131118_479132.shtml