EFPIA proposals to restore European pharma's competitiveness

During 1990-2000, average annual growth for pharmaceutical sales inEurope remained below 10%, while in the USA the average was 15%. During the same period, Europe's share of the world drug market fell from 32% to 22%, while the USA's increased from 31% to 43%, according to Jean-Francois Dehecq, chief executive of Sanofi-Synthelabo and president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.

Addressing the EFPIA's annual meetings in Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 19-22, Mr Dehecq also said that, while the industry's R&D investments in Europe had doubled during 1990-2000, reaching 17 billion euros ($14.64 billion) last year, such investments in the USA had multiplied nearly five times. In 1999, major European research-based companies spent 73% of their worldwide R&D expenditures in European Union territory, but by 1999 this share had dropped to 59%, he said, with the USA being the main beneficiary.

Against this background, he said, the EFPIA welcomes and supports the European Commission's establishment of the G10 high-level group on innovation and provision of medicines (Marketletter April 9). G10 has a mandate to produce, by April 2002, a report offering concrete proposals to address these problems. The EFPIA, which is part of the G10 group, recommends that this report should state that: