Wilmotte projet Servier Saclay Servier@JM.Wilmotte
One of the European Commission’s stated objective in its Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe is to support a competitive and innovative European pharmaceutical industry, an objective that Servier embraces. To achieve such a goal, policies are needed to ensure that Europe remains a hub for research and development, attracting investment in the biopharmaceutical industry. This is more than ever the case as a recent report mandated by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) titled “Factors affecting the location of biopharmaceutical investments and implications for European policy priorities” has shown that in the past twenty years, Europe’s has been losing ground to the U.S. and China.
The report highlights that while in 2002 the US spent only $2 billion more than Europe on R&D, the figure has now risen to $25 billion. Moreover, in 2001 Europe’s share of the total R&D investments made in the U.S, Europe, China and Japan was 41%, it has now dropped to 31%. This serves as an alarm, reminding Europe that if new policies that foster an environment conducive to R&D investment are not made, it will lose further ground globally, resulting in less innovation being developed in Europe, at the detriment of patients that rely on new treatments.
As a company headquartered in France, with production sites across Europe and 97% of our Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients for princeps produced in Europe, Servier has always made the choice to invest in Europe. This is further highlighted by Servier’s €387 million investment in its new research center in Paris-Saclay, which will open its doors to 1500 researchers in 2023 and will foster collaborative innovation through its incubator hosting up to 15 biotechs.
Yet, such decisions need to be supported by adequate policies to remain sustainable. The development of world class innovation hubs in the EU should be incentivized, receiving adequate policy focus so as to attract further R&D investment. Establishing these research hubs will contribute to a thriving research ecosystem, fostering additional collaboration between research clusters and leading to the development of new therapies for the benefits of patients.
In parallel, policies need to create a supportive clinical trial environment as well as regulatory agility and flexibility for the generation of real-world evidence. This will incentivize companies to invest in R&D in Europe and conduct clinical research here, which in turn will benefit patients.
Finally, policies that are being developed need to account for the long period needed to develop medicines. Companies look far ahead when investing in research hubs and manufacturing facilities to increase R&D activities, and when a successful drug candidate has been found, clinical trials are carried out over several years. A stable, attractive and predictable environment is therefore essential to support this lengthy process. New policies need to be carefully crafted so as not to negatively impact the attractiveness of the EU’s research ecosystems.
While the industry remains willing to do its utmost to improve its R&D capabilities in Europe, it will only be able to go so far without the above-mentioned supporting policies. The Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe provides a window for action to put forward a holistic panel of policies to improve the EU’s pharmaceutical industry’s competitiveness for the clear benefit of European patients in the long run.
This window of opportunity should not be dismissed. The time for action is now if we want to reverse current trends.
To see the complete list of policy areas that would require additional focus to attract R&D investment in Europe, developed by Charles Rivers Associates, please click here.