EFPIA calls on EU decision-makers to ensure that the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) strengthens Europe’s competitiveness, health security and resilience by supporting the full life-science innovation journey—from research and clinical development to manufacturing, deployment and patient access.

Its key priorities are:

• Ringfence ambitious health and life-sciences funding within Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), covering research, clinical and regulatory capacity, data and digital infrastructure, manufacturing, patient access and health-system resilience.

• Prioritized investment over additional burdens by reconsidering the proposed Corporate Resource for Europe (CORE) contribution, which EFPIA argues could reduce Europe’s attractiveness for globally mobile pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing investment.

• Keep Horizon Europe and the ECF open, collaborative and complementary, creating a coherent funding pathway from research and translation to scale-up and deployment, while protecting intellectual property and reducing unnecessary administrative burdens.

• Strengthen public-private partnerships, including Joint Undertakings, by recognising both financial and in-kind industry contributions and maintaining flexible, fit-for-purpose governance and financial rules.

• Ensure coherent and inclusive governance, with clear responsibilities between EU funding instruments and meaningful involvement of industry, patients and the research community in setting priorities and implementing programmes.

EFPIA urges the EU to align the final MFF with its competitiveness ambitions by providing predictable health investment, supporting collaboration and public-private partnerships, and avoiding measures such as CORE that could undermine Europe’s attractiveness as a destination for life-science investment.