Pharmaceutical R&D still leads
GlaxoSmithKline is Britain’s biggest investor in research
and development |
Investment in pharmaceutical research and development continues to top the research and development tables in the UK.
Data for 2003–04 show that GlaxoSmithKline invested most, followed
by AstraZeneca. GSK spent £2.791bn (13 per cent of sales) on R&D
over the year; AZ spent £1.928bn (18.3 per cent of sales). The
next most prolific R&D spender was BAE systems at £1.099bn
(13.1 per cent of sales). Pfizer was sixth in the table with an R&D
spend of £552m (58.2 per cent of sales).
GSK and AZ have led the field for at least the past five years. The level
of investment in pharmaceutical R&D in the UK is second only to that
in the US.
Richard Barker, director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical
Industry, said: “A vibrant, research-led pharmaceutical industry
is crucial to creating the knowledge-based economy Britain needs to be
successful in the 21st century. Money invested in UK R&D directly
benefits patients — who receive the latest treatments — and
supports UK science.”
The UK pharmaceutical industry returns 36 per cent of turnover — £3.3bn
a year —in R&D. Nearly a quarter of the world’s top 100
medicines were discovered and developed in Britain, more than any country
except the US. The industry contributed a positive trade surplus of £3.6bn
in 2003. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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