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		EFPIA Newsletter 19 March 2026

The price of hesitation — Why Europe’s economic future depends on health innovation.

By Teresa Graham, CEO, Roche Pharmaceuticals; and Vice President, EFPIA

European governments navigate an ever more competitive global landscape, stagnating productivity and competing demands on budgets. We have successfully faced and solved many challenges in the past, but this situation is different: the choices we make today will shape our health care systems and patient care, and these choices will dictate Europe’s economic performance and global relevance for decades to come.

For those of us in the life sciences, these aren’t just macroeconomic trends — they are the pulse of a system that determines how quickly a breakthrough reaches a patient. It is a high-stakes environment where policies on health care and innovation carry urgent human and economic consequences.

Turning EU excellence in science into commercial success could add more than €120billion to EU economy in 10 years

New research for EFPIA by Charles River Associates provides the first comprehensive overview of the EU’s attractiveness as a destination for pharmaceutical investment, benchmarked against its global competitors: US, China, UK and Switzerland.

While Europe retains important strengths, other regions have rolled out ambitious strategies to attract investment, innovation and talent.

How can Europe keep pace?

Improving Europe’s water quality: watch Euractiv’s event recording

On 17 March, we were pleased to take part in the Euractiv hybrid conference “Improving Europe’s Water Quality: How can the revised UWWTD be implemented fairly and effectively?”

As Nathalie Moll, EFPIA Director General, highlighted, “we all share the same objective of having clean water in Europe,” while stressing the need for “a fair share of the cost among all the polluters present in the water,” based on transparent, science-based data to ensure the right balance between environmental goals, patient access to medicines, and Europe’s competitiveness.

Watch the recording here.

Events

J&J | The essentials of partnering with a pharma company
19 March 2026 (Utrecht & Virtual)

Discover what it takes to build successful collaborations with pharmaceutical companies and accelerate your innovation... Read more

POLITICO Competitive Europe Summit 2026
24 March 2026 (Brussels, Belgium)

Caught between geopolitical turmoil, mounting pressure to deliver growth and war raging at its doorstep, the EU stands... Read more

DIA Europe 2026
24 March 2026 (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

Join the DIA Europe 2026 in March to explore how Europe can bring and keep innovation into the system to deliver better... Read more

Europe’s Choice: Investing in sustainable health systems
21 April 2026 (Brussels, Belgium)

At a time when health budgets are strained, public finances are under pressure, the health workforce crisis is deepening,... Read more

What we are reading

New PRIME tools to accelerate development of medicines in the EU
On 18 March 2026 (European Medicines Agency)

EMA launched three major new features of PRIME, the Agency’s scheme to enhance support for the development of medicines... Read more

Respiratory infections and long-term illness: a two-way street
On 18 March 2026 (Vaccines Today)

Until recently, long-term conditions (such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer) were seen as... Read more

Fostering greater collaboration in rare disease research
On 16 March 2026 (Rare Revolution Magazine)

Collaboration lies at the heart of rare disease research because its unique challenges can only be overcome by working... Read more

About the EFPIA newsletter

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) represents the pharmaceutical industry operating in Europe. Through its direct membership of 37 national associations and 40 leading pharmaceutical companies, EFPIA is the voice on the EU scene of 1,900 companies committed to researching, developing and bringing to patients new medicines that will improve health and the quality of life around the world.

Tel: +32 (0)2 626 25 55
E-mail:Communications@efpia.eu