The 2017 annual Efpia report shows an ever-growing European pharmaceutical industry proposed as a model of economic recovery for the entire continent.

The pharmaceutical industry is a key asset to scientific and medical progress. The annual appointment with the Efpia “2018: The pharmaceutical industry in figures” reports the numbers of the European pharmaceutical industry for 2017 showing a healthy European pharmaceutical sector committed to the new challenges posed by the ever-increasing strong new approaches to research and development.

Pharmaceutical industry: numbers

Some major steps in biopharmaceutical research, complemented by many smaller steps, have allowed the reductions of the mortality, as for instance, from HIV/AIDS-related causes and a number of cancers.

Yet, major hurdles remain, including Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, many cancers, and orphan diseases. Precisely for this reason, in 2017, the European pharmaceutical industry invested € 35.2 billion in R&D activities, compared to a total production value of € 258 billion. The balance of payments recorded a positive mark of € 98 bn, with exports (€ 385 bn) which clearly prevailed over imports (€ 287 bn). The sector occupied 750 thousand units last year, 115 thousand of which were engaged in research and development activities. All data are made even more significant by the trend of continuous growth since 2000, which did not fall even in the darkest years of the economic crisis.

The main trends

Among the main competitors, the report indicates the rapid growth of some emerging countries (Brazil + 11.5% in the period 2013-2017, China + 9.5%, India + 11.0%), which are becoming the subject of migration of both economic and research activities. This growth corresponds to a much smaller development both in the United States (+ 7.3%) and, above all, in Europe (+ 4.4%).

The US still represents the largest market for sales volumes (48%, vs 22% of Europe) and for the number of new drug launches (64, 1%, compared to 18.1% of the five main European countries). The parallel trade is a persistent problem, resulting from the fragmentation of the European market, which Efpia estimates at € 5.2 billion (ex-factory price) in 2016.

R&D potential

The discovery and development of new drugs is the lifeblood of the sector, as evidenced by the fact that the pharmaceutical and biotech industry is first in terms of R&D intensity (15%), ahead of software and information technology (10.6%). As known in 2016 the cost to be faced to each product developed reaches 1.9 bn. 48.5% of the funds involved in clinical development, 17.2% in pre-clinical development, 3.7%in approval procedures and 11.4% in post-marketing surveillance (phase 4); the remaining 19.2% does not have a precise categorization.

Value of production

2017 marked the overtaking of Italy over Germany in production (€ 30.01 bn vs. € 29.19 bn, respectively), even if outside the EU-27 area Switzerland still remains the undisputed leader (€ 46.2 bln). Germany exported € 69.5 billion in 2017, ahead of Switzerland (€ 64.5 billion) and Belgium (€ 40.7 billion); Italy (€ 20.5 billion) is also behind the United Kingdom, Netherlands and France.