InFigures European Pharma Hotspots 2024

Europe is home to a host of world-leading universal healthcare systems, globally relevant research institutions, and the headquarters of some of the globe’s biggest pharma companies. European science has long had a massive impact, not just for patients on the continent, but globally.

However, in recent years Europe has lagged both North America as well as East Asia in terms of big industry investments and breakthrough innovations. IQVIA posits that there is a rising gap in terms of the drugs launched in the US and those available to patients in the largest European countries, with 113 drugs (42 percent) launched in the US in the past five years that are not in Europe, while only 11 (six percent) of European launches did not make it to the US

Additionally, the share of global clinical trial starts from companies headquartered in Europe declined from 38 percent in 2013 to 23 percent in 2023. These companies now start about two-thirds as many trials as US headquartered companies, whereas in 2013 and earlier years, European headquartered companies started more trials than their US competitors.

Aware of its slipping global role, the European Council adopted a Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe in November 2020, aimed at creating a future-proof regulatory framework and supporting industry in promoting research and technologies that can reach patients, thereby fulfilling their therapeutic needs while addressing market failures. Building on this, in April 2023 the Commission adopted a proposal for a new Directive and a new Regulation, which revise and replace the existing general pharmaceutical legislation in Europe. Industry reaction has, thus far, been highly critical of these reforms’ ability to truly turn the tide.

However, there are still strong fundamentals in place in Europe. Medicine spending in the top five European markets is expected to increase by $70Bn over the next five years, up from $65Bn in the past five years, driven by new brands and offset by generics and biosimilars. Europe also boasts the largest biosimilar market in the world, as well as many key selling points from a research perspective – not least single-payer healthcare systems able to generate cradle-to-grave patient data – that could lead to greater international investment in the coming years.

This new report focuses on six European pharma hotspots: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. All these countries are home to globally relevant scientific institutions, international pharma companies, innovative biotech start-ups, key opinion leaders, and manufacturing footprints. While Switzerland lacks the domestic market size of these other countries, it punches well above its weight on a host of other metrics. Datasets contained within span macroeconomies, healthcare systems, domestic pharma markets, leading companies, exports and imports, biotech investments, clinical trials, and much more.

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