Pharma and biotech sector dominate r&d outsourcing in Europe

Published: 25-Aug-2006

The pharmaceutical and biotech industry outsources its research and development activities more than any other major industrial sector in the EU, a European Commission survey said.


The pharmaceutical and biotech industry outsources its research and development activities more than any other major industrial sector in the EU, a European Commission survey said.

The survey, which looked at 10 industrial sectors in Europe, shows that the 449 companies studied sub-contracted an average 18% of their r&d activities.

Nearly two thirds of these activities are outsourced to other private companies and one third is entrusted to public research bodies.

'The sector which outsources most of its R&D is pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (25%),' says the survey.

Of the 10 industrial sectors studied, European companies intend to increase their total R&D investment by about 5% annually over the next three years, according to the survey.

The survey also emphasises that the companies prefer to locate their R&D in their home countries, the top states in Europe for this being Germany, the United Kingdom and France.

'The main factors when deciding whether to locate R&D activity in one country or another are market access and the availability of qualified researchers, says the survey'.

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