Issue Decentralised production of fake medicines and synthetic opioids

Summary

The report suggests that decentralised chemical production could make enforcement much harder for authorities. The result could be substandard or counterfeit medicines and synthetic opioids, along with disruption to established pharmaceutical supply chains. This concern ties in with the prospect that machine learning and home fermentation kits may let individuals produce bioengineered products at home. The report links engineering biology to global supply chains by pointing out that pharmaceutical and chemical supply chains could be disrupted by counterfeit production. More broadly, it judges that the lower the barriers to these technologies, the greater the risk of misuse. Because UK medical supply chains are already global and complex, the report is concerned about how far such disruption could spread.