Health biotechnologies

The worldwide pharmaceutical market, worth an estimated 600 billion dollars, is rapidly expanding (7% annual growth rate the three last years). Innovation is essential for the survival of pharmaceutical laboratories which are faced with a reduction in the shelf life of pharmaceutical products and competition from generic drugs. For this reason, laboratories invest heavily in R&D; the average cost of developing a new pharmaceutical drug is estimated at around 800 million dollars. This is also the reason why there are large numbers of internationally mobile investment projects, which are motivated by the necessity of gaining access to the major markets, and the best technological and scientific resources. In this respect, France offers important advantages.

A strong pharmaceutical industry

The pharmaceutical industry in France directly employs approximately 100,000

3 international clusters

people, not including the medico-surgical equipment sector (45,000 employees), and the intermediate products sector (fine chemicals) and services sector (600 specialized companies). Overall, France is Europe’s leading producer of pharmaceutical drugs, with almost 220 specialized industrial sites and 550 companies, including some of the world leaders in their field (Sanofi-Aventis, ranked 3rd in this sector; Mérial, Pierre Fabre, Servier, Beaufour, etc.).

An important capacity for global research

The pharmaceutical sector, which employs 22, 000 research scientists and technicians within companies, is France’s second leading investor in research and

22,000 research scientists and technicians

development, after the automotive industry. The private sector is backed up by important public research institutes such as the CNRS, INSERM, CEA, Institut Pasteur, and the Institut Pierre et Marie Curie, whose total research budget is approximately 2.3 billion euros. Since the time of Pasteur, the practice of transferring technology from research to industry has been a tradition in France.

Opportunities for working in partnership with other sectors

Such as the agro-food industry or the cosmetics industry, in order to develop new types of health products: food medicines, derma-cosmetics... All this makes France a highly attractive location for pharmaceutical investment projects. Over the past 10 years, international projects have created more than 12,000 jobs in the

Over the past 10 years, international projects have created more than 12,000 jobs

pharmaceutical drugs sector alone. Many foreign companies have already chosen to locate their buisness in France, including: Daiichi-Sankyo, Takeda, AstraZeneca, Baxter, Chugai, Boerhinger-Ingelheim, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, MSD, Merck AG, Novartis, Novo-Nordisk, BSQ, Pfizer, Roche, Serono, and Schering Plough. These companies account for 51% of turnover in the pharmaceutical industry, a figure which reaches 69% in the medical equipment sector.
This high level of attractivness was confirmed in 2006, particularly with the major GSK investment project near Valenciennes. Other investments were made by Novartis, Boehringer, Merz, and by Elektra in the medical equipment sector. In 2006, these investments led to more than 1,500 jobs being created in the bio-pharmaceutical industry.