The focus is on restoring competitiveness and bringing first-line drug production back to Europe. pharmaceutical industry, an issue that has also been raised by Greek companies given the lagging behind in investment in drug research and development compared to the US, as well as the pressure Europe is under from emerging markets such as China, Brazil and India. According to the latest published EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations) in a study called Pharmaceutical industry in numbersEurope invested 39.6 billion euros in research and development in 2020, and this amount increased to 41.5 billion euros in 2021. According to the data, in 2020 Germany spent €7.8bn, Switzerland €7.3bn and the UK €5.6bn, while the Greek pharmaceutical industry invested €102m in drug research and development over the same period, t .e. more than in Portugal (90 million euros), Romania (69 million euros), Bulgaria (91 million euros), Croatia (40 million euros), etc.

At the same time, drug production in Europe reached 286.6 billion euros in 2020, with Switzerland being the largest producer of drugs, worth 53.2 billion euros, followed by Italy (34.3 billion euros) and Germany (32.3 billion euros). billion euros). In 2020, production in Greece moved to below 2 billion and in particular by 1.6 billion euros, surpassing such countries as Austria (1.4 billion), Czech Republic (880 million), Norway (1.4 billion euros). ).

Exports of drugs from Greece reached 2.9 billion euros, moving at about the same levels as the Czech Republic, but in our country the trade balance remained with a deficit of 344 million euros in 2020.