page_title: Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom
section_title: Research and development
hierarchical_section_title: Pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom / Research and development
caption_attribution_description: English: GlaxoSmithKline headquaters in Brentford, London, England.
context_page_description: The pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom directly employs around 73,000 people and in 2007 contributed £8.4 billion to the UK's GDP and invested a total of £3.9 billion in research and development. In 2007 exports of pharmaceutical products from the UK totalled £14.6 billion, creating a trade surplus in pharmaceutical products of £4.3 billion.
  UK Pharmaceutical employment of 73,000 in 2017
  compares to 114,000 as of 2015 in Germany, 92,000 as of 2014 in France and 723,000 in the European Union as a whole. In the United States 281,440 people work in pharmaceutical industry as of 2016.
  The UK is home to GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, respectively the world's fifth- and sixth-largest pharmaceutical companies measured by 2009 market share. Foreign companies with a major presence in the UK pharmaceutical industry include Pfizer, Novartis, Hoffmann–La Roche and Eisai. One in five of the world's biggest-selling prescription drugs were developed in the UK.
context_section_description: In 2007 the UK had the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical Research and development (R&D) expenditure of any nation, with 9% of the total, behind the United States (49%) and Japan (15%). The UK has the largest pharmaceutical R&D expenditure of any European nation, accounting for 23% of the total; followed by France (20%), Germany (19%), and Switzerland (11%).
  Notes:
  ᵃ Italicised company name: ultimate parent is not UK-based
   
  ᵇ Where parent company is UK-based: worldwide R&D spending; other companies: R&D spending in UK only
caption: The world headquarters of GlaxoSmithKline in Brentford, London
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