Pharmaceuticals, 310 million euros a year in exports to Russia and Ukraine
Fortune Health – February 24, 2022
The export of pharmaceutical products from Italy to is worth over 310 million euros a year Russia and Ukraine.
This was underlined by the president of Farmindustria, Massimo Scaccabarozzi, while fighting in Chernobyl. The conflict and EU sanctions also risk compromising the supply of medicines in the countries involved. And to be affected, once again, is likely to be the population.
“Together with the drug companies in Italy, I express strong concern about the intensification of the armed conflict in Ukraine. With Efpia (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations) we confirm our willingness to ensure that patients in countries affected by the crisis continue to have access to the medicines they need”.
Russia and Ukraine “are also important for exports along the entire supply chain. We therefore share and support Efpia's call for the parties involved to exclude from the scope of sanctions the entire drug supply chain, from medicines to pharmaceutical active ingredients, from any other intermediate goods for the production of diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, to machinery and packaging".
From Farmindustria also comes the guarantee of maximum commitment "to work to limit the impact of the conflict on the supply of medicines and on the clinical trials needed by patients in the areas" involved.
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Cyber warfare. Italy is also at risk
Already in recent days theNational Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) via Csirt signaled that the crisis in Ukraine increases “i cyber risks to which Italian companies are exposed who maintain relationships with operators located in Ukrainian territory, deriving from possible damage to digital lenses of that country", with various recommendations.
“A “wiper” type malware – named Hermetic Wiper (alias KillDisk.NCV) – whose peculiarities consist in intentionally destroying the data present on a device in order to make them
unrecoverable, undermining the proper functioning of the running operating system”.
Although many discussions are still ongoing on the effectiveness of hybrid warfare and therefore on the convenience for a state to replace hybrid warfare attacks with those of a traditional war, the damage that a well-designed cyber attack can cause is undoubted. For example, the Merck a pharmaceutical company, has just won a lawsuit against its insurance company that will have to pay about 1.4 billion dollars in damages related to 
aftermath of the 2017 NotPetya cyberattack that Russia carried out against Ukraine but which quickly spread to shut down the computer systems of hundreds of companies around the world. The insurance company did not consider the cyber attack to be an act of war and was therefore excluded from the insurance.
The Agency therefore pushes to adopt now urgently the recommendations already issued in recent days. And released new IOCs (indicators of compromise).
The alarm in Italy and in the West is well founded because in the past the clash between Russia and Ukraine gave birth NotPetya, which has caused billions of dollars of damage around the world by spreading from Ukrainian computers and networks to those of their Western partners and customers.
At least now the West – our companies, public administrations – should be better prepared. Hopefully.
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