In recent months, US and European politicians have been trading public statements on fiscal support to retain, sustain and develop their high-tech industries. We welcome the European Commission’s efforts to support “clean tech industries” through the Green Deal. For our part, the research-based biopharmaceutical industry continues to drive CO2 neutrality as part of our commitment to the green transformation. However, the current strategic debate should be allied to the development of a competitive policy framework that will support future medical innovation, drive sustainable healthcare and meet the needs of patients across Europe.
Despite all medical progress, there is still huge unmet medical need for many people in Europe living with a disease — yet innovation is constrained by regulators rather than encouraged. Patients are desperately waiting for answers to challenges like antimicrobial resistance, to depression and Alzheimer’s disease, to cancer and many orphan diseases. Finding these answers is the purpose of our industry.
Soon, the European Commission will publish its proposals for a revision of the EU’s pharmaceutical legislative framework. The so-called ‘pharma package’ will have a significant and long-term impact on a sector that in 2021 was the leading driver of the EU trade surplus, contributing €136 billion. Pharmaceutical companies employ 840,000 people across Europe and reinvest a greater percentage of their revenue in European research and development than any other high-tech sector.
Critically, it goes beyond economics; weakening intellectual property will drive the development of innovative treatments to other regions of the world.
Critically, it goes beyond economics; weakening intellectual property for instance will steer the development of innovative treatments to other regions of the world making it more difficult for Europeans to participate in new clinical trials and get access to the very latest advances in care.
As Heads of State and Government come together for a special summit this week, they have a strategic choice to make: a thriving innovative, research-driven biopharmaceutical ecosystem with world-leading medical science that supports early access to innovation for patients, economic prosperity and European jobs; or a death by degrees: gradual loss of standards in healthcare, investment and talent, enticed across the Atlantic or to the Asia-Pacific region with the promise of a vision, ambition and policy framework that will drive rather than choke medical innovation.
For Europe, it is a strategic choice: a thriving innovative, research-driven biopharmaceutical ecosystem with world-leading medical science … or a death by degrees.
With proven, resilient supply chains, innovative medicines have avoided the shortages we have seen across Europe in recent weeks. However, accelerating the loss of cutting-edge research, development and manufacture will make Europe more reliant on innovation coming from other regions in the future.
It is critical not to underestimate both the impact and the pace of change. In the 1990s, half of all new treatments originated in Europe, that figure is now just one in five. Clinical trials for cutting-edge treatments like personalized cell, gene and tissue therapies, considered to be the future of medicine, are now twice as high in the U.S. and almost three times as high in China than in Europe.
In the 1990s, half of all new treatments originated in Europe, that figure is now just one in five.
President Ursula von der Leyen just recently said in Davos: “We see aggressive attempts to attract our industrial capacities away to China or elsewhere. And we know that future investment decisions will be taken depending on what we do today.” We should hope this realization plays a role for the upcoming pharmaceutical legislation. Early drafts of the proposals, available in the public domain, would harm rather than enhance the industry in Europe’s competitiveness, and severely limit member states’ ambitions to attract life science investment.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “European wake-up” on global competition. The EU holds indeed the keys to unlocking the strategically important health, innovation and economic potential of its largest high-tech industry. It has the power to stem the flow of critical investments to other world regions. If the EU gets it right, the researched-based pharmaceutical industry will be uniquely placed to help deliver more innovation for patients and a healthier future for Europe.
