The economic impact of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe

For the first time in almost two decades, the EU pharmaceutical industry is facing substantial changes to the EU pharmaceutical legislation that will significantly impact incentives to develop and market medicines. With the revision, the European Commission is proposing measures to allow for faster access to generic medicines while at the same time incentivising the continued development and introduction to the market of innovative medicines.

Today, the pharmaceutical industry in the EU is the industry with the largest trade surplus, which means that a significant part of the 865,000 jobs in the pharmaceutical industry is driven by developing and manufacturing medicines in the EU. Furthermore, the industry contributes €131bn per year to the EU gross value added (GVA). Because of the importance of the pharmaceutical industry for continued prosperity and financing of the national healthcare systems in the EU, understanding the share of this wealth creation that comes from the innovative industry and the generic industry is key. This knowledge is important to factor in when assessing the potential consequences of the legislative changes proposed by the European Commission.

We find that

• The innovative industry accounts for 80% of the pharmaceutical GVA in the EU.
• Despite its lower GVA contribution, the generic industry is not unimportant in Europe as it plays an important role in a balanced pharmaceutical ecosystem.
• Recent measures by the European Commission put Europe’s competitiveness at risk.

The study is commissioned by Novo Nordisk A/S.