Belgium,

August 2020

This exclusive new report examines how Belgium has been able to establish itself as the ‘Pharma Valley of Europe’, famed for the quality and breadth of its medical research, the scale and complexity of its manufacturing infrastructure, and its multilingual, highly skilled, and industry savvy talent pool. It also looks at the wide variety of pharma multinationals who have chosen to situate regional headquarters, strategic hubs, as well as R&D and manufacturing sites in the country.

Other topics covered include how the country’s domestic market has evolved since the 2015 ‘Pact for the Future’ between industry and government, the impact of wide-ranging hospital network reforms, the continuing issue of low generics penetration, and much more.

Articles

The Long Read: Belgium – The Multifaceted

Squirreled away in the lowlands of North West Europe and somewhat dwarfed by the mighty neighbouring pharmaceutical powerhouses of Germany and France, one could easily be forgiven for overlooking Belgium’s zesty life science ecosystem. At first glance, the numbers certainly appear more steady than thrilling: a EUR 5.4 billion domestic drug market registering respectable, but…

European Cancer Forum 2020: Belgian MoH Maggie De Block Delivers Strong Message on Access to Innovation

The second edition of the European Cancer Forum was held in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday, 29 January 2020. Hosted by MSD in collaboration with the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC), Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE), and Digestive Cancers Europe (DiCE), the theme of this year’s event was “Towards A New Era In Cancer Care” – a…

Hospital Reform in Belgium: A Guarantee of Better Care?

Belgium’s healthcare system was ranked fourth in Europe in 2019, outperforming its peers across a number of metrics including a relatively high number of hospital beds per capita (six per thousand citizens, compared to the EU average of five per thousand citizens) and the second-highest number of doctor consultations per capita. With a compulsory health…

Parallel Trade in Belgium: Rebuffing the Critics

Stakeholders from the Belgian parallel trade industry outline how their activities are helping to solve medicine shortages in Europe and ensure patients have access to the medicines they need. They also tackle some of the criticisms often levelled at parallel distributors and foreground the industry’s vital importance for Belgian, and European, health. The EU…