New report underlines the health and economic opportunity from boosting industry clinical trials

A new report from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) highlights the significant health, economic and productivity returns that would result from increasing clinical trial activity across Europe.

The report, ‘The economic impact of industry clinical trials across Europe’, compiled by Frontier Economics [1], found that industry clinical trials contributed more than £31 billion [2] in economic value across the European Economic Area (EEA) in 2025, combining activity from clinical trial activity itself, R&D spillover benefits and improved workforce productivity through the prevention of sick days. They also support 165,000 jobs.

Increasing industry clinical trial activity by 11 percent in line with the European target [3] could deliver an additional £3.5 billion to the European economy, alongside the creation of 18,000 more new jobs and 35,000 more clinical trial places.

The EFPIA report confirms the findings of a previous report commissioned by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) which examined the value of industry clinical trials to the UK economy, the NHS, patients and UK research and development base.

The ABPI report showed that in 2022, industry clinical trials contributed £7.4 billion to the UK economy, including £1.2 billion revenue for the NHS. Restoring industry clinical trial activity to 2017 levels would generate an additional £3 billion for the UK economy and 26,000 additional jobs. [4] [5]

ABPI Executive Director for Innovation and Research Dr Janet Valentine, said: “These findings complement our earlier work highlighting the value that industry clinical trials bring to patients, healthcare systems, and to economic growth in the UK. Both reports demonstrate the significant gains that could be made by growing our share of global clinical trials.

“The UK government has pledged to improve the UK environment for delivering industry clinical trials, speeding up set-up times and boosting the number of patients enrolled in these trials of cutting-edge treatments.

“We are committed to working with government to make the UK a more attractive place for industry to invest, unlocking the productivity and health benefits associated with in clinical research.”