Germany’s Position in the International Competition for Pharmaceutical Innovation – a Comparison of Patent Activity

In the year 2000 over 1,400 patent applications, representing 17 per cent of the total for the global pharmaceutical industry, originated in Germany. By 2021, however, this figure had fallen to only 849, or just 9 per cent of the world total. The number and nature of patents filed by the international pharma industry reflects how companies in the sector have continuously adapted and adjusted their research activities since the beginning of the millennium. However, the data also reveals the differences in how national pharmaceutical industries have developed. While in many European countries there is an increasing lack of innovation in this sector, firms in China and South Korea are steadily catching up with the international leaders in a global industry still dominated by the USA. Developments in medical biotechnology, a speciality of increasing importance in pharmaceutical research, have been instrumental in this process. This expanding pharmaceutical sector is being promoted in other coun tries in a much more targeted and ultimately successful way than in Germany. Without an equally focused policy promoting Germany as a source of biopharmaceutical innovation and thus furthering the ‘National Pharma Strategy’ launched by the German government in 2023, the country is at risk of falling further behind the world leaders.