Pharmaceuticals

The pharmaceutical and therapeutics industry develops and produces the drugs, vaccines, antibodies and, increasingly, gene therapies that underpin modern healthcare systems. Pharmaceutical research and production is one of the success stories of UK Plc and the UK is dominant in research and development in Europe, having more than four times as many compounds in development as its nearest rival Switzerland.

Within the UK, the South-East is a particularly strong region for the pharmaceutical industry and is home to a significant part of the operations of two of the world's three biggest pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline (which has its global headquarters in the region) and Pfizer, in addition to hosting facilities of the other major names in the industry such as Sanofi/Aventis, Merck, Novartis, and Bayer. Although, when measured by turnover, the region appears to be dominated by multi-national companies, beneath this level, there are a significant number of smaller companies operating in the sector.

Pharmaceutical companies can be found throughout the South-East, but the main concentrations are in the Thames Valley, underpinned by its strong biotechnology sector, and in Kent where both Pfizer has its European R&D headquarters and GlaxoSmithKline bases elements of its R&D operations.

In the South-East, as elsewhere, the pharmaceutical and therapeutics industry continues to thrive, but it is not without its challenges. Globally, the industry is the subject of intensive regulatory scrutiny (particularly in its most lucrative market, the United States) and national health services and medical insurance companies worldwide are squeezing the prices of drugs and other therapies while profits are put under further pressure by manufacturers of generic drugs.

Supply of graduates and skilled staff continues to be an issue for the region, but the infrastructure of support industries (contract research organisations, contract sales organisations, agencies, research establishments, legal and commercial experts) makes the South East the region of choice for all the major companies’ marketing, R&D, and HQ facilities.