VALUE OF THE UK PHARMA INDUSTRY

The measurable net value of the UK-based pharmaceutical industry to the UK economy is in the region of L1.68-L2.27 billion ($2.58-$3.48 billion) a year, according to Adrian Towse, director of the UK industry-backed Office of health Economics.

Mr Towse told an OHE symposium on industrial policy and the pharmaceutical industry in London last week that these figures represent the central range of the UK-based drug industry's annual contribution to the national economy. it had not been possible to determine the percentage of earnings produced in the UK each year by overseas-owned companies which is repatriated back to headquarters abroad, he said, but the figures nevertheless represent a reasonable estimate.

The reason for this is the evidence for the UK-based industry's competitive advantage in the global market, given its share of the leading New Chemical Entities and of global R&D expenditure and its trade performance; net exports reached L1.3 billion in 1992 and their potential is much greater, given the current lack of open markets. Mr Towse added that a recent study by the Centre for Medicines Research has shown that products invented in the UK are better at internationalizing than some others.