The Animal Health industry in Europe - Facts and Figures
Employment
More than 50,000 full-time jobs* in Europe depend on the animal health industry.
+/- 15,000 directly in production, marketing, sales, administration and R&D;
+/- 18,000 indirectly as a consequence of the industry's purchases of goods and services, including contract R&D, logistics, capital equipment, and raw materials;
+/- 17,000 through its "multiplier" effects" (each € of expenditure on goods and services by the direct employees of the industry creates an additional employment in other sectors, especially services).
*This estimate excludes the distribution of veterinary medicinal products and livestock farming.
Total European sales amounted to US $ 5.3 billion, 35.3 % of the worldwide sales in 2005. Western Europe* represented 30.7 % and Eastern Europe** 4.6 % of the total worldwide sales. (Source: Wood Mackenzie Ltd., 2005)
* Western Europe includes EU-15, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Greenland and Malta.
** Eastern Europe includes Central and Eastern European countries, Balkan States and Former Soviet Union including Central Asian republics.
Investment
- +/- 12% of turnover for multinational companies in Europe;
- +/- 6% of turnover for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Europe.
Costs
- Time to bring a new product to market
5 to 11 years;
- Costs to bring a new product to market
Up to € 50 million. This figure can be higher in exceptional cases.
- Percentage of R&D budget spent on keeping existing products on the market (defensive R&D) 35 % in Europe; 16-18 % in the USA.
Although they represent only a very small proportion of agricultural input cost (on average less than 2%), animal medicines are crucial to allow European farmers to:
- produce high quality meat and dairy products on an efficient and sustainable basis;
- minimise environmental impact; and
- compete internationally.
Fewer, healthier animals enable the production of greater quantities of food from existing agricultural land with less waste and fewer emissions. A decrease of the use of veterinary medicines would require a larger food animal population to obtain the same production level.
For example, veterinarians believe that in a situation without veterinary medicines, the poultry population would have to increase by 25% and the cattle population by 89% to obtain the same production level as today.
(Source: Prof. Jacques Viaene, Ghent University)
Keeping our companion animals healthy and treating them with dignity is one of our objectives and is a contribution to society. This also applies to livestock and wild animals.
Recent research has demonstrated that the human/animal interaction benefits human physical, emotional and psychological well-being.
Some facts:
- In the EU alone, more than 13,000 assistance dogs help blind and deaf people as well as other handicapped persons in their daily life;
- Therapy horses are used to help treat people with mental and physical disabilities.
- Studies shows that pet owners are healthier than those who do not own a pet;
- Pet owners tend to be less susceptible to conditions such as depression, hypertension and heart attacks. They also recover more quickly from illness;
- Dog owners take regular exercise by walking their pets;
- For people living alone, ownership of a dependent animal offers a focus of interest and commitment, which is quite separate from personal preoccupations. Companion animals demand care and attention - and respond with affection.
- Positive self-esteem of children is enhanced by owning a pet.
(Source: IFAH-Europe and PAWSitive InterAction)
Comparison with the Human Pharmaceutical Industry
The human and veterinary pharmaceutical industries share many close scientific links. This has encouraged regulators to impose similar regulatory requirements on the two sectors, and most of the legislation governing the European animal health industry is modeled on rules developed for its human pharmaceutical counterpart. The financial resources available to those two industries – and their ability to bear such a regulatory burden- are significantly different, however.
For example:
• At more than US $ 550,000 million, global sales of human drugs are some 40-times higher than those of veterinary medicines. The value of the world animal health market in 2004 represented approximately 2.5% of the world human pharmaceutical market. (Source EFPIA, 2005)
• In Western Europe the animal health market in 2003 representeds approximately 3.13.3% of the human medicines market in 2004.
• Revenues generated by only one of the world's best-selling human medicines are equivalent in value to around three-quarters of the entire world market for animal health products.
October 2005
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