Madrid, July 17th.– This week saw the launch of the Cotec 2014 Report: “Technology and Innovation in Spain”, which reflects that the pharmaceutical industry is still acting as the driving force for industrial R&D in Spain. The document, which is produced annually by the Foundation for Innovation and Technology (Cotec), states that the pharmaceutical sector invested 586,878 € Mill. in R&D during 2012, positioning itself as the leading industrial sector for these initiatives, surpassing other preeminent sectors such as manufactures of aircraft and spacecraft or motor vehicles.

Not only is it the sector that invests the most, but also the one that allocates the higher part of its turnover to R&D activities. Specifically, the pharmaceutical industry allocates on average, 17% of its turnover compared to, for example, the 4% that the automotive sector invests.

On the other hand, the report also highlights that 62% of pharmaceutical companies based in Spain invest in R&D. Again, the pharmaceutical sector ranks top with the highest share of companies allocating part of their investments to research and development.

Public R&D, stagnated

In spite of the pharmaceutical industry’s excellent figures (and other sectors too), as far as 2012 investments in Spain are concerned, the document also confirms that the executed expenditure in 2012 corresponds to 1.30% of Spanish GDP, faced with the 1.36% reached in 2011. This figure actually means a going back to those lower figures registered in 2008, in spite of the contraction of Spanish GDP during that period. The numbers are worrying, since they are well below Germany’s 2.92%, or the UKs 2.26%.

The causes behind this reduction, according to the Cotec report, is because there are less and less innovative companies in Spain, but most of all, because the public sector has experimented a drastic diminution of researchers, which has in turned provoked a stagnation of public R&D during the last years.

Finally, the report confirms that Spanish R&D continues to deteriorate, although the experts consulted by the Foundation show they are a little less pessimistic than they were in the previous years.