ARZNEIMITTELRESISTENZ DURCH DIE HINTERTÜR

The document examines how the pharmaceutical industry contributes to the global rise of 'superbugs' through the discharge of antibiotic-laden waste into the environment, particularly in China and India. It highlights a critical lack of transparency in the supply chain and argues that current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) fail to include environmental criteria. The report provides case studies of specific companies—such as NCPC, CSPC, and Aurobindo—linked to environmental violations and calls on German health authorities (BfArM) and procurement bodies (BVBG) to integrate environmental and AMR criteria into their licensing and purchasing processes to prevent the further spread of drug-resistant bacteria.

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is projected to cause a massive increase in global mortality, with annual deaths potentially rising from 700,000 to 10 million by 2050, and causing a global economic loss of 100 trillion dollars by the same year.
• While human and agricultural misuse of antibiotics are known drivers of AMR, pharmaceutical production waste in China and India is identified as a critical, neglected cause that creates breeding grounds for resistant bacteria.
• In Hyderabad, India, pharmaceutical pollution has reached extreme levels; one study found Ciprofloxacin concentrations in water samples to be one million times higher than in treated urban wastewater, with daily emissions estimated at 44 kilograms.
• China dominates the global supply of antibiotic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), producing 80 to 90 percent of them, including the majority of penicillin industrial salts.
• The pharmaceutical supply chain is characterized by a severe lack of transparency, as manufacturer information on packaging is often incomplete and the EudraGMDP database is insufficient, making it difficult to trace APIs to their original factories.
• Current Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, required for exporting to the EU and USA, are insufficient because they do not include environmental protection criteria.
• Specific companies have been linked to severe pollution: in China, NCPC, CSPC, and Sinopharm WeiQida have been cited for illegal wastewater disposal; in India, Aurobindo has been reported to produce more hazardous waste than permitted and discharge untreated water near lakes in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.

APA

Changing Markets Foundation (2016). ARZNEIMITTELRESISTENZ DURCH DIE HINTERTÜR. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DRUG-RESISTANCE-THROUGH-THE-BACK-DOOR-GERMAN-FINAL-WEB.pdf

Chicago

Changing Markets Foundation. ARZNEIMITTELRESISTENZ DURCH DIE HINTERTÜR. 2016. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DRUG-RESISTANCE-THROUGH-THE-BACK-DOOR-GERMAN-FINAL-WEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Changing Markets Foundation |title=ARZNEIMITTELRESISTENZ DURCH DIE HINTERTÜR |date=September 2016 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DRUG-RESISTANCE-THROUGH-THE-BACK-DOOR-GERMAN-FINAL-WEB.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{changingmarketsfoundation2016arzneimittelresistenz, author = {{Changing Markets Foundation}}, title = {{ARZNEIMITTELRESISTENZ DURCH DIE HINTERTÜR}}, institution = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2016}, month = sep, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DRUG-RESISTANCE-THROUGH-THE-BACK-DOOR-GERMAN-FINAL-WEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }