Medicines surf the trade war to threaten the EU from exodus to the United States-Liberation

Big Pharma threatens the EU. The bosses of around thirty pharmaceutical laboratories have launched a warning in Brussels, demanding in a recent letter certain conditions to prevent « Exodus » investments from the sector to the United States in a business war context. In a letter addressed on April 11 to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenthe leaders of 32 pharmaceutical companies, large and medium, promise to« increase » the European market share, provided that it is in return for « Bold measures ». Europe currently represents 22.7 % in global sales of drugs.

The threat is lined with an ultimatum. Without that, « Within three months, 16.5 billion euros in planned investments could be transferred outside Europe », threaten the bosses of Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Roche, SanofiMerck, GSK or Servier in this letter. They demand a competitive European market « Who attracts, values ​​correctly and rewards innovation », believing that « The continuation of trade tensions will further accelerate the erosion of investments in research and development and production in the European Union ».

This must pass, according to them, through a revision of the drug prices policy in Europe, less favorable than that practiced in the United States, and the regulatory framework. It’s necessary « Starting the process for clinical trials conducted in several countries » And « Increase the resources of the European Medicines Agency to make a global reference to it in the approval of innovative therapies », still plead the signatories. They also ask Brussels to « Suspend and revise the implementation » of the directive which aims to improve the treatment of wastewater before their rejection in the wild, « In order to avoid disproportionate loads » for the sector.

Pharmaceutical products are currently exempt from customs duties imposed by Washington. But several pharmaceutical groups have recently announced to invest in strengthening production in the United States: $ 27 billion for Eli Lilly, 55 billion over the next four years for Johnson & Johnson. Merck inaugurated a vaccine manufacturing plant in North Carolina, a project valued at a billion dollars. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis also announced last Thursday to invest $ 23 billion in the United States over five years to make the main drugs for American patients.