Dutch Minister calls for "drugmaker pride"

The Netherlands' Minister for Economic Affairs, Maria van der Hoeven, has called on drugmakers to position themselves in the public eye better  and to take more pride in their achievements. The call comes in an  article published by Nefarma, the national research-based pharmaceutical  association, in its monthly newsletter Nefarma&.

Ms van der Hoeven praised the R&D contribution of the pharmaceutical  sector to the Netherlands' economy, equal to over 10% of the country's  total R&D investment and 15% of drugmakers' turnover on average.  However, she also warned that the international perception of the  Netherlands as a place to carry out drug research is not as high as it  should be and that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of  Education would be presenting proposals to improve intellectual  cooperation between businesses and academia.