Visualising UK pharma
Concerns that pharma companies will reduce UK operations have prompted calls for greater government support. Following the UK general election this is now the responsibility of a new government. Visualised below is a snapshot of the industry they have inherited.
The map is based on a document obtained from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) through a Freedom of Information request. The document lists facilities, including sites such as hospital pharmacies, licensed by the MHRA to manufacture products for human use.
Sites were divided up into the different regions of England, as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Island. Data is available here. The data covers the number of individual sites licensed by the MHRA and consequently does not take into account the scale of each operation.
Visualised below are the shifts in pharma manufacturing employee and enterprise levels from 1998 to 2007. Data was obtained from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) and covers “the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals and botanical products”.
After 2007 the ONS changed its categories, separating certain sub-sections from the group. This creates a discrepancy between pre- and post-2008 data and consequently the graphs stop at 2007. Information for 2008 onwards can be found here. Data used in the graphs is available here.
Viewing the level of UK pharma imports and exports over the past 20 years reveals strong growth. The data, available here, is again taken from the UK ONS and shows steadily increasing imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are in orange, exports in blue.
