Pharmaceutical manufacturing in Denmark

Denmark boasts a substantial talent pool and excels in nurturing talents.

With more than 50.400 employees, the Danish life science cluster has grown 25 % in 12 years. It means that Denmark has the highest employment growth within life science among European life science nations (Ministry of Business, Trade and Financial Affairs, 2023).

According to the IMD World Competitiveness Index 2023, Denmark has the world’s best and most flexible labour regulations and Danish employees possess the highest worker motivation. Additionally, Danish business leaders top the ranking in ensuring social responsibility, and Denmark is the second best country to attract and retain talents.

Supply chain and manufacturing resilience

When planning long-term investments, it is crucial to consider a country's risk and resilience profile. Denmark stands out and secured yet again the top position on the 2023 FM 'Global Resilience Index.'

Denmark provides a low risk production environment such as highly reliable energy supply, minimal exposure to climate changes, low probability of natural disasters as well as strong focus on cyber security. These are all elements that mitigate risks that could otherwise result in delays, breaches in supply chains or even cause factory shut-downs.

A greener and more sustainable Life Sciences Industry

In a so-called climate partnership, the Danish Government together with the manufacturing industry have set forward very ambitious goals for Denmark in terms of reducing CO2 and manufacturing footprint. Such ambition demands green innovation and heavy investments in green infrastructure such as renewable energy, green hydrogen and reuse of excess heat.
 
But these efforts didn’t start just recently. Since 1990, the pharmaceutical industry has grown by 1200 percent while the industry has reduced its CO2 emissions by 55 percent and today has a very small CO2 footprint. Danish pharmaceutical companies Novo Nordisk and Lundbeck are both represented on the top list of climate conscious companies, CDP’s annual A List, which names the world's most pioneering companies leading on environmental transparency and performance.

Strategic geographical location with prime cool chain logistics

Denmark has the World’s best distribution infrastructure (IMD 2023) with Greater Copenhagen being Northern Europe’s hub for pharma logistics and supply chain. As by far most of the Danish pharmaceutical production is being exported, and approximately 20 pct. of Denmark’s total exports are pharmaceuticals, Copenhagen Airport is the Pharma Logistics Hub and holds several Cool Chain Logistics providers.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing in Denmark

• A proactive approach to advanced automation places Denmark at the forefront of manufacturing
• Digitalization enables transparent and resilient supply chains, which mitigate the risks of delays, breaches in the supply chains or even factory shut-downs.
• Energy supply is green, highly reliable and not expensive for non-household use.
• Denmark is famous for fast processing when dealing with construction permits

High productivity and high growth rates

The pharmaceutical industry is by far Denmark’s most productive sector and is a so-called high productive industry. An average employee adds a value of 2 mio. DKK / 270.000 EUR, which is double the amount of an average employee in the total Danish Industry. Compared to other European life science nations, only Sweden, Ireland and Belgium have similar productivity rates.

In 2008, Danish life science companies generated a value of approximately 5.36 billion EUR. By 2020, this figure had risen to 13.7 billion EUR, which means that the value-added in the industry has more than doubled in this period. The life science industry has experienced an average annual growth rate in value-added of 12.5%, which is more than four times higher than the private business sector's rate of 2.7%. (Ministry of Business, Trade and Financial Affairs, 2023).

Politically favorably climate for life sciences

The various Danish governments continuously take active steps to boost the life sciences industry by building further on the strong national healthcare system and world-class environment for business and science. The governments also present various growth plans for the Life Sciences industry focused on strengthening the framework conditions for the industry even more.

Innovation and R&D an important driver for the manufacturing industry:

Furthermore, medical and health science is the highest priority research area by far, accounting for more than one third of all public research investments, ensuring access to highly qualified employees. 

R&D contributes to a large extent to promoting growth and thus also to strengthening the competitiveness of the companies in the Danish Life science industry. The Danish Life Science companies spend an average of almost 10 percent of their turnover on R&D and are responsible for around 40 percent of the total investments of the collective Danish business investments in R&D.