The pharmaceutical industry in Europe is an economically important sector as well as part of the general interest for medical care. Therefore, competitiveness and resilience must be considered in order to strengthen Europe as a pharmaceutical location. For both goals, strategies should be chosen that are independent of each other in their approach and choice of instruments. A blanket relocation of pharmaceutical production, on the other hand, would result in high costs for the healthcare system and damage competitiveness. The strength of the European pharmaceutical industry lies not in pharmaceutical preliminary products and mass products, but in high-quality R&D-intensive products.
To strengthen resilience, precise interventions should be made in those products where critical dependencies exist. In particular, dependence on China is critical for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the antibiotics sector. However, other measures, such as diversifying supply chains and maintaining strategic contingency capacity and emergency production capacity, should be taken before considering relocation to Europe.
To strengthen competitiveness, a supportive regulatory framework should be created and expanded instead of subsidies. This includes, among other things, an excellent education system for specialists, a flourishing research and development landscape, an innovation-promoting implementation of the Important Project of Common European Interest Health (IPCEI Health), and the establishment of a European Health Data Space. This business and innovation-friendly climate would strengthen Europe as a pharmaceutical location for future investment decisions.
