Research-based pharmaceutical companies in Germany again intensified and expanded their research and development (R&D) activities involving new pharmaceuticals in 2009. R&D expenditure increased to EUR 5.2 billion, which corresponds to over EUR 14 million a day. As a result, not just volume but also research intensity increased, despite the global financial and economic crisis. At 4.4 percent, R&D expenditure grew more strongly than sales (3.6 percent). A higher proportion of sales, 13.7 percent, was invested in R&D activities than in the previous year. Although pharmaceutical products make up only 2.4 percent of the German industry’s sales, research-based pharmaceutical companies contributed more than 10 percent of R&D spending
in 2009.