A global industry

Pharmaceuticals are one of Britain’s leading manufacturing sectors, bringing in a trade surplus of £4.3 billion in 2007. The value of UK pharmaceutical exports in 2007 was £14.6 billion, more than £235,000 per employee. Yet we are low in the league of medicines expenditure: we spend much less than many of our European neighbours on the medicines we use. But our two largest pharmaceutical companies are among the most successful in the world. In a global industry such as pharmaceuticals, it is important to be in the Big League. An analysis of the world’s top 100 medicines reveals that, after the USA, Britain’s pharmaceutical companies’ market share is more than all its European competitors combined. Despite this success, British doctors are still reluctant to prescribe new medicines – clinicians in other countries are far more likely to prescribe medicines that have come on to the market in the past five years.