EU should draw up list of medicines to be produced in Europe, says German health minister

BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union should draw up a list of active substances used in medicines whose production should be brought back to Europe to reduce dependency on China, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday.

Spahn told a news conference in Berlin it was not a question of shifting the production of all drugs back to Europe but that the goal was to reduce dependency on China.

"It should not be up to China to decide whether we have sufficient protective masks," Spahn said, adding Germany wants to push forward efforts towards more independence during its EU Council Presidency, which began on July 1.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt and Caroline Copley)