The Role of Life Science in European Industrial Policy

EU industry and health policy are undergoing rapid changes these months. The COVID-19 crisis elevated the EU’s health budget and ambition to new heights, and the Commission is now working determinedly to lay the foundations for a European Health Union. At the same time, the pandemic created new political pressure to strengthen EU’s industrial policy – only to accelerate following the war in Ukraine, leading most recently to the new Green Deal Industrial Plan.

A key aim of the new measures is to safeguard Europe's competitiveness at the global stage. But the new developments in EU’s industrial policy also raise a number of principled questions that directly affect the future framework conditions for the pharmaceutical industry, including the balance between state aid and fair competition, intervention and autonomy, innovation and ownership, as well as policy intervention and profits.

The roundtable will discuss the overall ambitions and challenges that the new industrial and health policy strategies should address and it will examine the possible solutions that Denmark can provide to ensure innovation in health technologies and the development of life sciences in Europe for the benefit of both European patients and the economy.

Particular focus will be on the Commission's new Pharmaceutical Strategy. The strategy will include proposals for a revision of the general pharmaceutical legislation, as well as a new regulation of orphan and pediatric medicines, expected to be presented on March 29, 2023. The Commission's stated aim is to ensure the availability of affordable medicines whilst supporting the competitiveness of the EU’s pharmaceutical industry.

The roundtable will discuss the content of the new proposal and its impact on the competitiveness of the European pharmaceutical industry as well as the ability to attract investments in competition with global players. Today, around 25% of the world's new treatments come from Europe, but the shares of both new global treatments and global R&D investments have been declining over the last 25 years. How could new EU legislation reverse this trend – to the benefit of citizens and industry?