The reason: China is churning out the same antibiotics and ingredients as the Sandoz factory in Kundl, Austria, at much lower cost for the European market.
Reuters
21 October, 2026, 05:40 pm
Last modified: 21 October, 2026, 05:55 pm
Highlights:
- China's share of EU imports of penicillin has surged, Eurostat data show
- Analysts say antibiotic dependence could give Beijing strategic leverage
- Sandoz seeking anti-dumping measures, CEO says antibiotics in Europe cheaper than candy
- China says industrial support complies with WTO rules, rejects protectionism
Tucked away in the green foothills of the Austrian Alps, the last fully integrated European penicillin plant faces an uncertain future in the shadow of rising Chinese industrial power.
The reason: China is churning out the same antibiotics and ingredients as the Sandoz factory in Kundl, Austria, at much lower cost for the European market.
The falling prices are a boon for cost-conscious European governments' public healthcare programs but an existential threat to the Kundl site - the only one making penicillin from start to finish in Europe, including key active ingredients.
After a number of peers announced they were closing or moving production to China, the plant has become a focal point for a widening debate about the West's self-sufficiency.
And, just three years after a €200-million ($225-million) expansion that included €50 million of public funds, Sandoz has asked the European Commission to open an anti-dumping investigation that could result in tariff measures against Beijing.
If the plant went out of business, Europe "would be fully dependent" on China, Kundl site manager Stephanie Jedner told Reuters in offices looking out over the plant's gleaming storage tanks, ringed by the Tyrolean Alps.
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin a century ago in London, and it remains the main antibiotic class for life-threatening infections. Today, the manufacturing of ingredients for some 1.5 billion daily doses Europe administers each year is dominated by China.