The Dutch pharmaceutical industry is the fastest-growing industrial sector in the Netherlands, driven largely by exports. According to a new analysis by TNO, 93% of all pharmaceutical production is exported, with the country holding a particularly strong global position in complex medicines such as cell therapies.
Between 2019 and 2024, the sector's added value increased by 83.5%, more than twice the average growth of the Dutch economy. However, TNO warns that investment in research and development (R&D) is not keeping pace. While the industry's economic output continues to rise, patent activity has slowed and R&D spending has remained largely unchanged, causing R&D intensity to fall from 4.1% in 2019 to 2.9% in 2023.
The gap is even more striking compared with neighboring countries. Pharmaceutical companies in Belgium and Germany invest around 20–23% of their added value in R&D, far above the Dutch level.
TNO attributes this to the Netherlands' well-known "innovation paradox": the country excels in scientific research but is less successful at translating that knowledge into private R&D and commercial innovation. Without sustained investment, TNO warns, the Netherlands risks losing its competitive position in high-value biopharmaceutical fields such as cell therapy and vaccines as production gradually shifts to countries investing more heavily in innovation.