Belgian vaccine exports generated 21.9 billion euros in 2023, consolidating Belgium’s place as the leading vaccine exporting country in the world, according to the sectoral federation of Belgian life sciences and biotechnology companies ”bio.be/essenscia”.
Thanks to its biopharmaceutical sector, which the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 had highlighted, Belgium has overtaken, in terms of vaccine exports, the United States, Ireland, Spain and Italy in the top 5 of the exporting countries, a comparative analysis of the federation reveals, based on data from the National Bank of Belgium and the United Nations Comtrade database.
“Many vaccines and vital drugs have been designed, developed and produced in Belgium and are today exported from our country to be administered to patients around the world,” welcomed the president of the federation, Geoffrey Pot, quoted by Belgian media.
The Flat Country has a “complete ecosystem”, recently reinforced by new research centers such as VirusBank (KU Leuven), Vaccinopolis (UAntwerpen) and the European Plotkin Institute for Vaccinology (ULB and UAntwerpen), a- he noted.
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However, the federation believes that, in this “very competitive” sector, the country needs an “ambitious” and “integrated” strategy (from the laboratory to the patient) “at the regional, national and European levels”.
The objective, according to her, is to stimulate innovation, attract investments and accelerate the marketing of innovative medicines, therefore pleading for the maintenance of the deduction for innovation in its current form, the exemption from payment of professional withholding tax for researchers, and attractive tax support measures to attract foreign investment.
For the sector, it is also “essential” to develop “smart” mobility solutions and to establish “a stable regulatory and fiscal framework aimed at increasing competitiveness and reducing the administrative burden”.
”bio.be/essenscia” also calls on the next federal government to continue the Biopharma R&D platform, a space for consultation between federal government departments, industry and the academic world.
With MAP
