While the Middle East is not a major pharmaceutical producer like China or India, there are still products that originate from the region, and many drugs rely on petrochemicals to be made.
The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) recently issued a risk assessment report of the Middle East conflict, finding that the impact is currently limited.
The region is responsible for only 0.3 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production and 0.6 percent of oral solid dose production, with most of this concentrated in Jordan and Israel.
There are, however, a handful of drugs that those two countries have a significant hand in.
Jordan produces about half of the world's amoxicillin oral suspension and the same percentage of API for etomidate, a fast-acting anesthetic. Seventy-three percent of API for flumazenil, a medication used to reverse the effects of benzodiazepines, is produced in Israel and Jordan.
Alternative treatments for all these medications are available and health care providers are accustomed to working with shortages of these drugs. The rising price of oil is currently of higher concern for those observing supply chains, for the cost of transporting and producing drugs.
Petrochemicals, derived from oil, are a key starting material for most medications. If heightened energy prices continue far into the future, those cost increases are likely to be passed on to consumers.
Petrochemicals aren't directly going into the composition of drugs, but they are needed for production.
"Things that aren't directly in the medications, but they're needed in the chemical synthesis pathways," Michael Ganio, senior director of pharmacy practice and quality for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, told The Hill.
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