Europe has some of the world’s top scientists–and 43 of the world’s top 100 schools for life sciences. Europe outputs twice the number of scientific publications than the United States–and three times that of China. However, Europe’s global share of research and development dropped from 39% to 28% (and to just 25% in oncology) in just five years. According to McKinsey, the total volume of funding in healthcare is four times higher in the U.S. than in Europe.
Looking more broadly, Europe only accounted for a 19.3% share of global clinical trials activity in 2020, a decrease of 6.3%, compared with the 25.6% average over the last 10 years. Europe publishes more academic papers on advanced therapies (ATMPS) such as gene and cell editing than its competitors. However, the bloc’s policy and financial landscape means there are twice as few ATMP clinical trials in Europe than there are in the U.S. and three times fewer than in China.
