R&D Gap

There are two things I take away from this story. First, despite what some would say, the main reason that drugs are more expensive in the US is because the US is doing the research.

Only three EU companies have made it to the global top ten for investors in research and development, according to an EU report on R&D investment.

US companies dominate the list – five in the top ten, and the first four of the top five - with pharmaceutical company Pfizer being the champion on R&D spending.

If the US began importing drugs, what would happen to the future? First of all, break through would suffer and people would continue to suffer from things that could have been prevented. Of course where there is money there is corruption. But on the other end there is a struggle to actually market what has been developed.

The second thing (this is actually the main thrust of the story) is gap in research. That gap relates to the gap in technology and indirectly to the standard of living. This is reflected in a higher population but lower GDP when comparing the EU to the US. Look at the chart from the study and remember that non-EU consist of the US, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland. The EU has 18 companies among the top 50 R&D investors, the same number as in the 2006 Scoreboard. The USA has 20 companies, two more than last year. Japan has 9 companies, one less than in last year , Switzerland has 2 and South Korea has 1.

The only two categories where the EU is in the lead is fixed line communication and aerospace & defense.

By their own definition, the EU has not been able to compete.

The comparison of research spending between the EU and the rest of the world is considered to be one of the main indicators to determine whether the EU will
become the most competitive economy by 2010 - an EU goal set out in the Lisbon
strategy.