Archive:Manufacture of pharmaceuticals statistics - NACE Rev. 2
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- Data from April 2013. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
This article presents an overview of statistics for pharmaceuticals manufacturing in the European Union (EU), as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 21.
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(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_na_ind_r2)
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(% share of sectoral total) - Source: Eurostat (sbs_sc_ind_r2)
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Main statistical findings
Structural profile
The pharmaceuticals manufacturing (Division 21) sector in the EU-27 is characterised by its small number of very large, capital-intensive enterprises. In total, there were 4.0 thousand enterprises in the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in 2010; together they employed 542 thousand persons across the EU-27 and generated EUR 85.9 billion of value added.
The large average size of enterprises in the EU-27’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector can be seen from the share of the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector within the non-financial business economy (Sections B to J and L to N and Division 95): as it represented just 0.02 % of all non-financial business economy enterprises, employed 0.4 % of the workforce, and generated 1.4 % of its value added. Within manufacturing (Section C), the EU-27 pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector contributed 1.8 % of the total workforce and 5.4 % of total value added in 2010.
The apparent labour productivity of the EU-27’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in 2010 was EUR 158.4 thousand per person employed, 3.5 times as high as the non-financial business economy average of EUR 44.8 thousand per person employed and the second highest ratio among the manufacturing NACE divisions in 2010 (behind coke and refined petroleum products manufacturing, Division 19). Associated with this high apparent labour productivity ratio were high average personnel costs, EUR 59.9 thousand per employee for the EU-27’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sector in 2010, approximately double the EUR 30.9 thousand per employee average for the non-financial business economy and again the second highest level among manufacturing NACE divisions (again behind the coke and refined petroleum products manufacturing subsector).
The wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio for the EU-27’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in 2010 was 264.4 %, showing that apparent labour productivity in this sector was approximately 2.6 times as high as average personnel costs. Among manufacturing NACE divisions, this wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio was lower only than that recorded for tobacco manufacturing (Division 12), while among the NACE divisions within the whole of the non-financial business economy this was the eighth highest ratio.
The gross operating rate shows the relation between the gross operating surplus and turnover and this indicates that the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector had relatively high operating profitability. Its gross operating rate stood at 23.2 % in the EU-27 in 2010, more than twice as high as the non-financial business economy average (10.1 %) and two and a half times as high as the manufacturing average (9.0 %). This was the highest level of profitability (using this measure) among the NACE divisions within manufacturing. It should be noted that this measure does not take account of depreciation or financial expenditure, which are typically higher in capital-intensive activities.
Sectoral analysis
The EU-27’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector is split between the large subsector of pharmaceutical preparations manufacturing (Group 21.2) and the smaller basic pharmaceutical products manufacturing subsector (Group 21.1). In fact, as much as nine tenths of sectoral value added and employment in the EU-27’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in 2010 could be attributed to pharmaceutical preparations manufacturing — see Figure 1.
Although varying considerably in size, the two subsectors displayed similar characteristics, quite high levels of labour productivity, high average personnel costs and high operating profitability. The smaller basic pharmaceutical products manufacturing subsector recorded higher EU-27 apparent labour productivity (based on incomplete data) and lower average personnel costs than the pharmaceutical preparations manufacturing subsector (see Table 2b). As a result, this subsector had a notably higher wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio, 313.3 % in 2009, which was the second highest among all manufacturing NACE groups in 2009 and the tenth highest among all NACE groups within the non-financial business economy. The basic pharmaceutical products manufacturing subsector recorded a wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio of 235.9 % in 2009, which was also well above the manufacturing and non-financial business economy averages and was the fourth highest among all manufacturing NACE groups.
Both subsectors also recorded high gross operating rates within the EU-27 in 2009, 23.5 % for the pharmaceutical preparations manufacturing subsector and 20.7 % for the basic pharmaceutical products manufacturing subsector; these were the highest and third highest gross operating rates respectively among manufacturing NACE groups in the EU-27 in 2009.
Country analysis
Less than one fifth of the value added generated in the EU-27’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in 2010 was contributed by Germany (18.0 %), ahead of Ireland (15.0 %), the United Kingdom (12.4 %), France (10.0 %) and Italy (10.0 %). The Irish share of EU-27 value added in this sector was the highest contribution made by Ireland to any of the non-financial business economy NACE divisions (with data available) in 2010, whereas Slovenia’s 0.7 % contribution was its second highest. The very high ranking of Ireland in this sector reflects its exceptional specialisation: pharmaceuticals manufacturing contributed 15.8 % of Irish non-financial business economy value added in 2010. The next most specialised Member State was Slovenia, where 3.6 % of non-financial business economy value added was generated in pharmaceuticals manufacturing; Switzerland was also highly specialised in this sector as 5.3 % of its non-financial business economy value added was generated in this activity. The least specialised Member State (among those for which data are available), was Estonia where 0.1 % of non-financial business economy value added was generated through the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.
Ireland was the most specialised EU Member State (in value added terms) for both subsectors in 2010. In fact, its specialisation in the basic pharmaceutical products manufacturing subsector was so great that it was the largest Member State in terms of its contribution to EU-27 value added, contributing 45.5 % of the sectoral total in 2009.
Wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios and the gross operating rates for the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector were generally high. Nearly every EU Member State for which data are available recorded higher values in this sector for these two indicators than they did, on average, for the whole of manufacturing or the whole of the non-financial business economy: the one exception was Estonia which also had the lowest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio among the Member States. The Irish pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector stood out when analysed in terms of productivity: average value added per person employed was EUR 777.3 thousand, while its wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio was 1 029.4 % — the next highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratios among the Member States were 412.3 % in the United Kingdom and 389.6 % in Finland. For Ireland, this was the highest wage-adjusted labour productivity ratio across all of the NACE divisions within the non-financial business economy in 2010, while this was the second highest ratio for the United Kingdom and the third highest for Finland. The highest gross operating rate in the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in 2010 was 40.8 % in Finland, followed by 36.7 % in the United Kingdom and 31.1 % in Ireland.
Size class analysis
The EU-27’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector was one of five manufacturing NACE divisions which were dominated by large enterprises (employing 250 or more persons). Large enterprises employed 78.1 % of the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector’s workforce and generated 87.4 % of total value added. These were the fourth highest shares in 2010 for any of the manufacturing NACE divisions, while among all non-financial business economy NACE divisions the share of large enterprises in sectoral value added was the sixth highest. Due to their higher share in value added terms, large enterprises not only dominated the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector but also had by far the highest apparent labour productivity: EUR 177.3 thousand per person employed compared with an average for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs, employing fewer than 250 persons) of EUR 91.4 thousand per person employed.
In a majority (15) of the EU Member States, large enterprises provided more than half of the value added that was generated in the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in 2010, a share that reached 90.0 % or more in Germany, Hungary, Finland, the United Kingdom and Denmark. In Estonia and Lithuania there were no large enterprises in the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector, while in the remaining Member State (for which data are available), namely Portugal, the value added share of large enterprises was just 25.5 %. In none of the Member States (with data available) did the share of micro enterprises (employing fewer than 10 persons) or small enterprises (employing 10 to 49 persons) surpass 8.0 %. By comparison, the contribution of medium-sized enterprises (employing 50 to 249 persons) was relatively large, exceeding 10.0 % in 11 of the Member States and reaching as high as 64.0 % in Portugal and 92.4 % in Estonia.
Data sources and availability
The analysis presented in this article is based on the main dataset for structural business statistics (SBS) and size class data, all of which are published annually.
The main series provides information for each EU Member State as well as a number of non-member countries at a detailed level according to the activity classification NACE. Data are available for a wide range of variables.
In structural business statistics, size classes are generally defined by the number of persons employed. A limited set of the standard structural business statistics variables (for example, the number of enterprises, turnover, persons employed and value added) are analysed by size class, mostly down to the three-digit (group) level of NACE. The main size classes used in this article for presenting the results are:
- small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): with 1 to 249 persons employed, further divided into;
- micro enterprises: with less than 10 persons employed;
- small enterprises: with 10 to 49 persons employed;
- medium-sized enterprises: with 50 to 249 persons employed;
- large enterprises: with 250 or more persons employed.
Context
This article presents an overview of statistics for the pharmaceuticals manufacturing sector in the EU, as covered by NACE Rev. 2 Division 21. The manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products involves the production of medicinal active substances to be used for their pharmacological properties in the manufacture of medicaments, for example, antibiotics, basic vitamins, salicylic and O-acetylsalicylic acids.
Pharmaceutical preparations comprise medicaments (including homeopathic preparations), antisera, blood fractions, vaccines, medical diagnostic preparations and medical impregnated preparations such as wadding, gauze, bandages and dressings.
This NACE division is composed of two groups:
- the manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products (Group 21.1);
- the manufacture of pharmaceutical preparations (Group 21.2).
See also
- Manufacturing
- Other analyses of the business economy by NACE Rev. 2 sector
- Structural business statistics introduced
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- European business - facts and figures (online publication)
- Key figures on European Business – with a special feature section on SMEs – 2011 edition
Main tables
- [hthttp://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/structural-business-statistics/data/main-tables Structural business statistics (t_sbs)]
Database
- SBS - industry and construction (sbs_ind_co)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics - industry and construction (sbs_na_ind)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics for industry (NACE Rev. 2 B-E) (sbs_na_ind_r2)
- SMEs - Annual enterprise statistics by size class - industry and construction (sbs_sc_ind)
- Industry by employment size class (NACE Rev. 2 B-E) (sbs_sc_ind_r2)
- Annual detailed enterprise statistics - industry and construction (sbs_na_ind)
- SBS - regional data - all activities (sbs_r)
- SBS data by NUTS 2 regions and NACE Rev. 2 (from 2008 onwards) (sbs_r_nuts06_r2)
Dedicated section
Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)
Other information
- Decision 1578/2007/EC of 11 December 2007 on the Community Statistical Programme 2008 to 2012
- Regulation 295/2008 of 11 March 2008 concerning structural business statistics