Sustainable access to essential medicines is crucial at all times, especially during a pandemic when health-care systems are operating at maximum capacity and there is an increased demand for life-saving supplies. Moreover, in pandemics, not only health-care systems but also global medicine supply chains are under severe stress. Shortages of medicines, which were common before 2020,1,2 have been exacerbated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic because of increased demand, lockdowns, border closures and hoarding.3,4 The supply of medicines could be improved by increasing the transparency of the complicated and fractured supply chain, starting upstream at the sources of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
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