To be fair, European big pharma also lives off the US market to plump their margins. That subsidizes their ability to charge lower prices in Europe and elsewhere. They also constantly poach cutting edge biotech & pharma companies out of the US to keep their stables full, such as AveXis, Genzyme, Genentech, etc. Without constantly buying up elite US biotech, Europe would have practically no biotech industry at all.
The US is by far the world's largest drug market. It's heaven for Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche, AstraZeneca, et al. The US drug market is twice the size of the EU drug market, with ~37% fewer people.
> To be fair, European big pharma also lives off the US market to plump their margins.
...as I said in my very next sentence? :)
> They also constantly poach cutting edge biotech & pharma companies out of the US to keep their stables full, such as AveXis, Genzyme, Genentech, etc. Without constantly buying up elite US biotech, Europe would have practically no biotech industry at all.
Can I ask, what's the problem with this?
All of the companies you refer to are pretty-much global - they have a presence in many countries, including the US, and by being publicly traded, ownership isn't especially linked to their country of origin. AZ (for example) being based in the UK means little for the UK, apart from that being where it pays some tax, and employs some people in its head office.
To take one of your examples, Roche (Swiss) bought Genentech (US), and still maintains the same huge presence in SF, still employs people in SF, still pays taxes there. And presumably the previous owners of Genentech stock did nicely out of this?
To be fair, European big pharma also lives off the US market to plump their margins. That subsidizes their ability to charge lower prices in Europe and elsewhere. They also constantly poach cutting edge biotech & pharma companies out of the US to keep their stables full, such as AveXis, Genzyme, Genentech, etc. Without constantly buying up elite US biotech, Europe would have practically no biotech industry at all.
The US is by far the world's largest drug market. It's heaven for Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche, AstraZeneca, et al. The US drug market is twice the size of the EU drug market, with ~37% fewer people.