Employment in the Pharmaceutical Industry (1990-2021) Total & R&D

The research-based pharmaceutical industry is one of Europe’s major high-technology industrial employers. 

Recent studies in some countries showed that the research-based pharmaceutical industry generates about three times more employment indirectly – upstream and downstream – than it does directly (PwC, Economic and societal footprint of the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, June 2019). 

Furthermore, a significant proportion of these are valuable skilled jobs, for instance in the fields of academia or clinical science, which can help maintain a high-level knowledge base and prevent a European “brain drain”.