The boardrooms of all European big pharma companies have issued a stark warning regarding the current competitiveness of the continent’s pharma industry, adding that change is swiftly needed.
In an open letter to European governments, the chairs of AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Ipsen, GSK, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi pressed the point that Europe has fallen behind the US and China. Without remedies, that gap will widen, the letter goes on to say.
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While pointing to the pharma sector as one of the continent’s “great post-war achievements”, impetus has been lost. Over $600bn in pharmaceutical investment has been announced in the US and China in the last two years alone. China has seen a surge in licensing deals, while many biotechs making the public jump are choosing to conduct their initial public offerings (IPOs) in the US.
Despite the European Union (EU) ushering in several reforms – including the Biotech Act – aimed at increasing the appeal of the region for pharma players, the letters’ signatories said that more must be done.
The nine chairs stated that, “European governments must create conditions that attract investment in next-generation medicines before it’s too late.”
Accelerating clinical trials, protecting intellectual property, and adopting digital policies are some of the areas that the companies’ boards would like addressed. In clinical trials alone, Europe could unlock €53bn and 82,000 jobs by closing the gap to China and the US. The big pharma companies are also imploring national governments to help the EU, saying that pharmaceuticals should be viewed as being as vital as defence and energy.
This would help silence “alarm bells”, which are ringing according to the chairpersons. In 1990, Europe accounted for 43% of global pharmaceutical R&D. Today, it is 31% and falling. China has overtaken Europe on many of the metrics used for measuring innovation, with the country aiming to develop 25% of first-in-class drugs in the global pipeline by 2030 as part of a pharma growth strategy.
The letter comes amid a volatile economic landscape for medicine access. President Trump’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug policies have cast a spotlight on European drug pricing. More major European countries like Germany are pushing their domestic agendas to decrease drug spending further to address broader budgeting and financial concerns, triggering investigations by the US Trade Representative (USTR).
The UK, no longer part of the EU, signed a trade deal with Trump that secured zero tariffs on pharma products. In return, the UK pledged to pay more in net price for new medicines on the NHS. The deal has been met with mixed reception.
However, GSK and AstraZeneca’s presence on the open letter reflects a unified stance across the continent beyond the EU’s member states.
The companies’ boards finished the letter by stating: “Europe’s story does not have to be one of decline and dependency; it can be one of renewal and resilience. That choice belongs to national leaders and all of us as citizens. If we fail to act with ambition, our future will be built elsewhere. But if we choose to invest in health and medicines as strategic assets, Europe will not merely catch up – it can set the pace of global innovation once again and enable Europeans to live longer, healthier lives.”
These feelings have been festering for a while. In August 2025, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) called upon European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen to take urgent action to counter what it described as a “risk of exodus” in R&D and manufacturing.
