Matej Mikulic
Research expert covering health, pharma & medtech
Pharmaceutical industry in Europe - Statistics & Facts
Europe is the homeland of the pharmaceutical industry as we know it. It is also home to the oldest, still active pharmaceutical company worldwide: Merck KGaA, in the U.S. also known as the Merck Group, which celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2018. Europe and the U.S. are still the largest and most prominent pharmaceutical markets. Their companies are still the global key players, where the most R&D investments take place. It is no wonder that the first widely approved and used COVID-19 vaccine worldwide came from a U.S.-European collaboration, between German firm BioNTech and American company Pfizer.
EFPIA – The industry’s parent organization
A large part of Europe’s drug manufacturers is organized within the EFPIA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Association. Currently, it includes 37 national pharma associations and 39 of the leading pharmaceutical companies in Europe. For 2021, it was estimated that EFPIA members generated about 300 billion euros in production value. Additionally, the trade balance was a positive 175 billion euros, underlining the continent’s role as a major exporter of pharmaceutical goods. At this moment, some 840 thousand people are working in the European pharmaceutical industry, a significant increase compared to around 535 thousand employees back in 2000.Small, but a giant
Although a smaller country in terms of population size, Switzerland is a long-established major player when it comes to its pharmaceutical industry. Its pharmaceutical production value is larger than Germany’s and Ireland’s combined. The dominant Swiss position is of course driven by its two heavyweights, Roche and Novartis, two of the largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide based on prescription drug revenues. Both companies originate from the same city, Basel, where they also have their global headquarters. Besides these, other European companies within the global top 10 of big pharma are Sanofi from France and AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline from the UK.Europe as a center for R&D
The pipeline of potential new medicines and expenditure on research and development are essential in the pharmaceutical industry. EFPIA members spent some 41.5 billion euros on R&D during 2021, with Germany and Switzerland being the biggest contributors. Europe is also strong in conducting clinical trials. Around one fourth of clinical trials worldwide are performed in Europe. Within Europe itself, the subregions where most trials are conducted are Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. Once the trials are made, a drug must be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to be ready for market entry. During 2021, most new active substances approved by EMA were in the areas of oncology and infectious diseases.
