Some of Europe’s largest pharmaceutical companies, including UK-based AstraZeneca and GSK, have stated that the continent is “losing ground” to rivals such as the US and China in developing new drugs and attracting investment. The chairs of nine companies, including Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, wrote to Andy Burnham and other European national leaders on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, urging action to “safeguard our companies’ future”.
The letter, titled “Europe Is Losing the Pharma Investment Race – But the Comeback Is Within Reach,” called on governments to consider medicines as strategic infrastructure and to act to restore Europe’s competitiveness. It highlighted that the pharmaceutical sector supports millions of highly skilled jobs and generates an EU trade surplus exceeding €220bn (£188bn), but warned that this is “at risk.”
The companies noted that over $600bn in pharmaceutical investment has been announced in the US and China in the past two years alone. According to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), Europe’s share of global pharmaceutical research and development has decreased from 43% in 1990 to 31%. The continent’s share of commercial clinical trials has also halved to 9% from 18% a decade ago.
China has reportedly surpassed Europe in clinical trials, pharmaceutical patents, and the development of new medicines, with its share of global clinical trials rising from under 10% to almost 30% over the same period. The letter also highlighted that almost half (49%) of newly approved therapies did not reach European patients last year, an increase from 46% in 2019, with those drugs that do taking nearly 600 days on average to become available.
The industry body attributes delays and unavailability of new medicines to factors including the speed of regulatory processes and insufficient budgets in some European countries. The nine pharmaceutical companies argued that closing the clinical trials gap alone could generate €53bn and create 82,000 jobs in Europe.