Belgium strengthens leadership position in European pharmaceutical industry

From 2015, Belgium is gradually emerging more and more as one of the main "biopharmaceutical poles" in Europe, according to the information published on Monday by pharma.be, the cupola association regrouping more than 130 pharmaceutical companies in Belgium.

By 2015, Belgium has been growing above the European average in terms of investment in pharmaceutical R&D: 5.5 percent against only 1.98 percent for the average of the other 27 EU member states.

In total, it's about an investment of 2.6 billion euros (about 2.76 billion U.S. dollars) by pharmaceutical companies in R&D in 2015, representing one tenth of R&D efforts in whole Europe. In view of its number of inhabitants, Belgium is the second country in the EU to invest the most in the field of pharmaceutical R&D.

The Belgian pharmaceutical industry is very export oriented. By 2015, Belgium has exported more than 41 billion euros in medicines and vaccines. At least 14 percent of European exports come from Belgium, which is one seventh of all biopharmaceutical products.

Belgium's strong performance in the EU is made possible by a host of country-specific strengths and the legislative framework in place. First of all, Belgium has a unique and strongly anchored ecosystem made up of multinationals, biotechnology companies, SMEs, start-ups and companies specializing in veterinary medicines.

The Belgian pharmaceutical sector has a great capacity to attract talents. Because of the high quality of Belgian universities and the attractiveness of jobs, the sector can rely on highly qualified and highly diversified staffs. Endit