BRUSSELS — Europe needs to get its “act together” and unleash its potential in the pharmaceutical sector, supporting it with better incentives and ensuring access to innovation for patients, urged Stefan Oelrich, president of Bayer’s pharmaceuticals division. “Europe used to be the pharmacy of the world. Nine out of 10 new medicines were discovered in Europe. That’s no longer the case,” Oelrich, who is also president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), said at the POLITICO 28 Gala Dinner. “We’re losing competitiveness rather than gaining.” China and the U.S. are pulling ahead on pharmaceutical innovation and clinical trials. About one third of medicines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) don’t make it to Europe, Oelrich said. And amid the U.S. tariffs threat, companies are increasingly looking outside of Europe for investments. But there is hope — both for the pharmaceutical industry and beyond. Per Franzén, CEO and managing partner at EQT, a global investment organization, said he is seeing “an unprecedented interest to invest into Europe.” “It’s a real window of opportunity, a unique moment in time for Europe,” he said. “In order to make the most out of that opportunity, what we need to do is really to drive a more business-friendly, more innovation-friendly agenda,” he said. But with the pace of change, driven by artificial intelligence, “time is of the essence,” he added. Over-regulation isn’t holding Europe back in medicines innovation, it’s a lack of substantial incentives for companies to invest in Europe, Oelrich said. But it doesn’t have to be this way, he said: “We have some of the best universities in the world that publish some of the coolest science in the world. So there is no reason why this wouldn’t work. And we need to get our act together,” he said. “Instead of trying to complicate our lives and come up with a new bureaucratic idea, we should come up with with ways of how we unleash our forces.”

BRUSSELS — EU lawmakers have clinched a long-awaited agreement on the bloc’s overhaul of its two decades-old pharmaceutical rules — one of the EU’s biggest health files. The revamp is designed to restore Europe’s competitive edge and give companies more certainty that the EU remains an attractive market, while also pushing for more equal access to medicines across member countries. The deal between the Parliament and the Council was struck at 5 a.m. on Thursday, more than two years after the Commission tabled the proposal, which consists of directive and regulation, in spring 2023.  It marks a major victory for the Danish presidency, which pledged to wrap up the file before the end of the year, and for Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, who has pushed to seal the reform amid growing geopolitical uncertainty.

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LONDON — The American drugmaker Eli Lilly wants to see more changes to Britain’s medicine market before it pivots on its abandoned £279 million investment in a biotech incubator project. The U.K. government has drawn up proposals to increase the amount the state-funded National Health Service is allowed to pay pharmaceutical firms for drugs after intense discussions with officials from Donald Trump’s administration. The U.S. president has demanded lower drug prices for Americans, and suggested other developed countries should pay more. The British plans under consideration could increase the threshold at which the NHS pays firms for medicines by up to 25 percent. But for the U.S. pharmaceutical company — which shelved its planned facility meant to support early-stage life sciences businesses with lab space, mentorship and potential financial backing — the proposal alone is not enough. “I don’t think we have heard enough to say that we are willing to get the Lilly Gateway Lab started,” Patrik Jonsson, president of Lilly’s international business, which covers all markets outside the U.S., told POLITICO. “I think once we see the right signs from the U.K. government, we’re more than happy to restart those discussions, and we could move quite quickly,” Jonsson said. However, “we need to see some significant and sustainable change here.” The comments will be a blow to British negotiators, who are in advanced talks to agree their drug-pricing deal with the U.S. administration as part of wider trade negotiations. Officials are hoping to wrap up the pharma talks ahead of the U.K.’s budget in late November. Ministers last week granted a two-week extension to the deadline by which pharma firms must tell the government if they intend to leave the NHS’s voluntary drug pricing scheme. If Washington and London strike a deal — effectively committing the NHS to higher drug spending — Chancellor Rachel Reeves will face pressure to spell out how much the increase will cost taxpayers. ‘WE NEED THE RIGHT CONDITIONS’ Drugmakers have long called for changes to the U.K.’s tightly-controlled drug prices. Britain limits the annual cost for a year of good-quality life (QALY) for a patient at £30,000 for most drugs. Industry also pays an annual rebate to the NHS at 23 percent of their U.K. sales. These measures have contained the medicine bill for the U.K.’s publicly-funded health care system. While Jonsson acknowledged the U.K. is “well positioned to be a source of innovation” thanks to a “small but really impressive group of scientists,” he said the country needs to demonstrate sustained changes. The British plans under consideration could increase the threshold at which the NHS pays firms for medicines by up to 25 percent. | Anna Barclay/Getty Images “At the end of the day if you want us to research, develop and produce medicines in your country you need to put the right conditions in place so that your citizens can get access to those patients at least who need it most,” Jonsson said. An editorial in the Lancet medical journal last week said “the argument that paying more for medicines leads to more innovation is unfounded.” “If the U.K. Government wants to attract pharma investment, it should follow the evidence. Rather than handing over more money for medicines, it should invest in creating fertile conditions for attracting world-leading scientists, boosting public infrastructure for research and development, and facilitating clinical trials,” the article states. “Although the tangible outcomes of applied research might appeal to politicians, investing massively in a second-to-none basic science sector will allow scientific innovation to flourish.” Jonsson was speaking to POLITICO as the company announced a €2.6 billion new manufacturing facility in the Netherlands to produce oral medicines, including its first GLP-1 weight-loss pill. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We will always prioritise the needs of NHS patients. Investment in patient access to innovative medicines is critical to our NHS. “We are now in advanced discussions with the US Administration to secure the best outcome for the UK, reflecting our strong relationship and the opportunities from close partnership with our pharmaceutical industry,” the spokesperson added.

The European Commission is set to unveil the Biotech Act I, an EU cardiovascular health plan and a simplification of the bloc’s medical devices and in vitro diagnostics rules on Dec. 16, according to the latest Commission agenda published Monday. The first part of the Biotech Act will focus on the pharmaceutical industry and is being produced without a dedicated impact assessment. The second part — covering other biotech sectors — is expected in the third quarter of 2026. The upcoming cardiovascular health plan — inspired by the bloc’s Beating Cancer Plan — will cover prevention, early detection and screening, treatment and management, and rehabilitation. Meanwhile, simplification of the bloc’s medical devices and in vitro diagnostics rules comes after the regulations drove up assessment costs, caused certification delays, and led to product withdrawals from the market. Europe’s Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi has previously said the sector needs a “major overhaul.” Additionally, the Commission’s agenda includes a “drugs package” comprising new rules on drug precursors and an EU Drugs Strategy and European action plan against drug trafficking — both scheduled for Dec. 3.

LIVERPOOL, England — The U.K.’s Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said pharmaceutical companies are proving “hard negotiators” amid crunch talks tied to President Donald Trump’s deadline to impose 100 percent tariffs on U.S. pharmaceutical imports. Asked about the impact of Trump’s threats and a spate of recent warnings about the U.K.’s investment climate from leading pharmaceutical companies, Kyle told the POLITICO Pub at Labour Party Conference “there is a lot of discussions and negotiations going on over pricing.” The U.K.-U.S. Economic Prosperity Deal signed in May left the door open to “preferential treatment” for the U.K. on U.S. pharmaceutical tariffs, but only if the U.K. improves conditions for American drug makers. The prime minister’s business adviser, Varun Chandra, flew to Washington this week to discuss tariffs. In parallel, the U.K. government is locked in talks with companies over NHS drug pricing, with Science Minister Patrick Vallance recently hinting the NHS will need to pay more if Britain wants to stay attractive for investment. However, Kyle indicated he thinks the sector’s concerns have been overstated, saying: “The pharma companies are very good negotiators. They are hard negotiators, and they know how to use the media and the press to do it.” “But we are tough negotiators too, and we are in the process of negotiating lots of different arrangements and agreements and investments into pharma.” Kyle insisted the U.K. continues to “have one of the best life sciences communities in the world,” pointing to a recent £1 billion investment by German medicines giant BioNTech. The government is continuing to look for ways to make it easier to roll out innovative medicines across the U.K.’s health system, he said. STEEL TALKS CONTINUE Elsewhere, Kyle said London is “not giving up on on moving forward in a whole range of areas,” related to the U.K.’s trade pact with the U.S. Outstanding 25 percent U.S. steel tariffs on British steel exports are “part of that conversation,” he confirmed, but refused to put a deadline on discussions. Kyle stressed that the U.K. had already secured lower tariffs than most other countries, which face 50 percent tariffs on steel exports to the U.S. — a move he said had been “celebrated” by the sector. He also said the U.K. needed to consider its strategy to steel more broadly amid global upheaval. “When you look at what the U.S., the EU, India, China and other territories are doing, all of them have a very distinct approach to steel, and we as Britain need to find our way within that.” “Because America is not just thinking, ‘what should our global steel policy be’ only in relation to the U.K. They are thinking about a global relationship with steel, and the U.K. is one part of it.”

It could have been the ominous cold open to a classic Bond film. The Russian and Chinese leaders caught on a hot mic at a Beijing military parade, casually musing about cheating death. “With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality,” Russian leader Vladimir Putin told Chinese ruler Xi Jinping, his tone half clinical, half conspiratorial. “Predictions are that this century, there is a chance of living to 150,” Xi replied. But this wasn’t a scriptwriter’s villainous fantasy. It was a jaw-droppingly real exchange between two of the world’s most powerful, heavily armed leaders. While it may have sounded absurd, behind palace walls, the obsession with longevity is more than idle chatter. The Russian and Chinese leaders were caught on a hot mic at a Beijing military parade, casually musing about cheating death. | Pool photo by Alexander Kazakov/AFP via Getty Images In 2024, the Kremlin ordered scientists to fast-track anti-aging research on cellular degeneration, cognitive decline and the immune system. Meanwhile, China has also been pouring resources into exploring nanotechnology-delivered hydrogen therapy and compounds such as betaine and lithocholic acid, hoping to slow down aging and extend healthy lifespans. But even as the world’s autocrats fantasize about replacing body parts like car tires, the science remains far less accommodating. James Markmann, executive council president at the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, called Xi and Putin’s idea of living to 150 through transplants “unfounded.” “There is currently no evidence suggesting that living to 150 years of age is possible through organ transplantation,” Markmann said. “While there is much interest in related research and some progress in intervening in the aging process, there is no evidence that a 150-year lifespan can currently be achieved.” While organ transplantation can and does save lives, there’s no data that it can also slow or reset an individual’s biological clock, Markmann said. Replacing a single organ, or even several, may improve health temporarily, but it cannot halt the overall aging process of the body. “The concerning idea here is that there is a surplus of organs available that can consistently be replenished for a single individual to prolong their life; this is simply not the case,” Markmann said. THE OLDEST OBSESSION The Xi-Putin exchange didn’t happen in a vacuum. History is littered with rulers who believed they could outsmart death. Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, swallowed mercury pills in pursuit of eternal life, a habit that eventually killed him. Egyptian pharaohs mummified themselves for eternity, Cleopatra dabbled in youth potions and medieval alchemists peddled elixirs. By the 20th century, Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II, and Empress Alexandra were consulting Rasputin and other mystics for advice on health and longevity. Today, the same quest has migrated to Silicon Valley, where the mega-rich pour fortunes into cryonics, anti-aging biotech and “biohacking” in the hope of buying more time. According to Elizabeth Wishnick, an expert on Sino-Russian relations and senior research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), a non-partisan research and analysis organization, this fixation is typical of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful. “They want to go into outer space, they want to go underwater … the human body for them is just another frontier,” she told POLITICO. “It’s logical for people who don’t feel limits to try to extend those boundaries.” But there’s a stark contrast close to home. Life expectancy in Russia remains just over 73 years, while in China, it hovers around 79 years, with access to healthcare being deeply unequal. In Wishnick’s view, Xi and Putin “would do better to focus on that, but instead their focus seems to be on their own longevity, not the health of their societies.” UNFINISHED BUSINESS There’s also a significant cultural dimension agitating Xi and Putin. Robert Jay Lifton, the American scholar who coined the term “symbolic immortality,” argued that humans invent religions, nations and political legacies as ways of cheating death. Xi’s mantra of “national rejuvenation” and Putin’s mission to restore a “great Russia” fit neatly into that framework — even if they can’t physically live forever. “Both of them are really hostage to their own propaganda,” said Wishnick. “They truly believe they are the only leaders who can do the job. They’re concerned about their legacy and how they’ll be remembered in history.” That, she said, helps explain their obsession with reclaiming “lost” territories — Taiwan for Beijing; Ukraine for Moscow — as if completing unfinished maps might also complete their historical destinies. Qin Shi Huang’s attempt at immortality, the Terracotta Army, still stands today. | Forrest Anderson/Getty Images They’ve made creeping moves toward that goal domestically. Xi has upended China’s tradition of leadership turnover to maintain his dominance, while Putin has dismantled elections and eliminated rivals until only he remains. “It’s not surprising they would look to science as a way of extending that,” Wishnick added. While the scientific limitations persist, immortality will — at least for the time being — remain tied to public consciousness and memory. See, for example, Qin Shi Huang’s Terracotta Army, which still stands, or Russia’s expansionist czar, Peter the Great, an 18th-century leader who inspires Putin even today. But even in a world of nanotech and organ swaps, immortality has a catch: you still have to live with yourself. And for the world’s Bond villains, that might be the cruelest sentence of all.