Pharmainnovationen: überragende Position der USA und Schwächen der deutschen Forschung

The innovative strength of research performance is often measured in terms of inputs such as research funds or outputs such as patent applications. We present a novel indicator of pharmaceutical innovativeness that focuses on global medical breakthroughs and associated patents. According to this indicator, US companies account for 55 % of global medical breakthroughs from 2010 to 2019, and their German competitors account for about 9 %. In terms of underlying anchor patents, the dominance of the US is even larger, at 62 %, while only 7 % of anchor patents come from Germany. US universities hold 3.8 % of all anchor patents; German universities hold none. The weakness of German universities cannot be compensated by German non-university research institutes.