There’s a reason why each of the world’s top 10 biopharma players has based key activities in Belgium. From Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi and Merck & C° to Johnson & Johnson, GSK, AstraZeneca, UCB and AbbVie – they all tap into the right local ingredients for a successful biotech ecosystem:

• top-notch academic research centers, including the renowned VIB life sciences institute and the VITO research center for sustainable innovations in healthtech, chemistry and more;
• the fastest clinical trials approval procedure in Europe (15 days tops), in addition to the fact that Belgium is the European #2 when it comes to the number of trials per capita;
• a dense community of agile SMEs open to innovative collaborations;
• supportive national and regional authorities that offer biopharma, life sciences and biotech companies access to a range of tax and R&D incentives and financing options.

EUR 3.4 billion. That’s how much the Belgian biotech industry funneled into research and development in 2016 alone. This represents a staggering increase of 123% compared to 10 years earlier, and the number of R&D investments continues to grow.

As such, Belgian life sciences companies have been partnering successfully with large pharmaceutical firms – resulting in a cumulative value of over EUR 18 billion when it comes to licensing and R&D contracts signed over the last 12 years. More than EUR 4 billion of that amount has already been received as milestone payments.