Challenge:

The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly growing worldwide and provides significant added value to the economy. The Netherlands has a highly developed pharmaceutical value chain supported by world-class scientific expertise. However, the economic potential of the Dutch pharmaceutical industry remains largely underutilized due to the insufficient development of several key conditions necessary for successful lab-to-life value creation. Therefore, an integrated approach is needed to address the structural market failures currently preventing the Dutch pharmaceutical value chain from realizing its full economic and societal potential.

Project Goal(s):

The primary goal of PharmaNL is to provide a sustainable boost to the entire Dutch pharmaceutical value chain, enabling the full economic potential of innovative pharmaceutical products and production technologies in the Netherlands to be realized. This should lead to an increase in drug development and manufacturing in the Netherlands. Additionally, PharmaNL structurally enhances the attractiveness of the Netherlands as a location for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Furthermore, it aims to make the field of “life sciences” more appealing to (prospective) students and pupils, in order to support the increased activity in drug development.

Project status: A PharmaNL subsidy program runs from 2023 to 2030 with ZonMw. It operates with two nationally coordinated program lines, Shared Development Infrastructure and Human Capital Growth, within which subsidies can be applied for. See: PharmaNL | ZonMw

Executing party: PharmaNL (Building future pharma – PharmaNL) is an initiative for the Dutch pharmaceutical sector, supported by a nationwide public-private consortium consisting of Leiden University/Leiden University Medical Center, Campus Groningen, and Pivot Park Oss.

Contribution of FAST: FAST is actively involved in the development of the PharmaNL application for the National Growth Fund, the implementation of the associated program with ZonMw, and serves as an observer at the PharmaNL board.