SMEs – the driving force of pharma industry in European Union

Recently, European Medicines Agency (EMA) has presented annual report from the SME office 2012 summering outcomes of 7 years of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). According to it, in 2012, the number of companies assigned as SME status increased by 62% compared to previous year proving rapid development of this sector and as so are recognized as major driving force if innovation in the pharmaceutical industry.

First of all, it has to be noticed that definition of SMEs are different from country to country. European Commission unified the definition for EU member states defining three broad parameters:

• Micro- entities with up to 10 employees,
• Small companies employing up to 50 workers,
• Medium-sized companies with up to 250 staff members

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