2023-11-03 06:04:40
The fight against Hamas is hitting Israel’s economy hard. But German companies are also feeling the effects. And authorities are taking precautions to be on the safe side – for example for the pharmaceutical market.
Berlin.
German medium-sized companies are reacting cautiously to the war in Israel. “Some companies are initially taking a cautious approach and waiting to make planned investments,” said Andrea Frahm, representative of the Federal Association of Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW) in Tel Aviv, to the German Press Agency. “Many expats have left and are working from Germany for the time being.”
There are close connections between Israel and Germany’s medium-sized businesses, especially in the high-tech industry, said Frahm, who is also head of the Israel office of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. “We are now working on rescheduling or indefinitely postponing conferences and event formats between high-tech and industrial companies planned in the next few months.” Frahm has not observed that companies are now giving up their businesses in Israel on a large scale. “It’s still too early for that.”
Germany and Israel have close economic relations – even though Israel is a relatively small trading partner of the Federal Republic. According to the Bundesbank, 103 German companies have branches and around 10,000 employees in Israel. According to the Foreign Office, Germany is Israel’s most important economic partner in the EU with a trade volume of 8.94 billion US dollars (around 8.4 billion euros) last year.
Medicine supply precautions
Because of the war, precautionary measures are already in place in Germany. The Bonn Federal Institute (BfArM) for Drugs and Medical Devices is analyzing the risk of possible delivery failures from Israel. There are currently “potentially limiting circumstances” for eight active ingredients, which are now being examined separately.
For clarification, hearings were sent to eight marketing authorization holders who only reported one active ingredient manufacturer in Israel. In addition, pharmaceutical industry associations are called upon to “inquire of their member companies about further possible risks associated with supply-critical medicines and to pass them on to the BfArM”.
The Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva says production is “still largely unaffected” by the war. The company, which is considered the world leader in copycat medicines and is active in Germany with Ratiopharm, says it has “emergency plans with backup production sites in place”. (dpa)
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