The economic downturn had less effect than expected on biopharma companies in Europe, according to the newly released EU Industrial R&D investment Scorecard published by the European Commission. The report, which included data on industrial research spending for fiscal year 2009, ranked 400 EU-based companies and 1,000 firms based elsewhere. Many cash-strapped firms scaled back research in 2009, with R&D investments across all sectors worldwide down 1.9%. The biopharma group, however, consolidated its position as top R&D investor, with a 5.3% increase in 2008 in global R&D spending and a 2% hike in Europe alone. Swiss drug giant Roche of Basel ranked second among all sectors for R&D investment. John Shortmoor, pharma analyst at Datamonitor, is not surprised at the findings. “To sustain a presence—especially in a time when a significant number of marketed products are losing patent protection—requires constant product innovation and continued R&D investment.” For biotech in particular, European firms increased their investment budget by 7.9% in 2009, outperforming their US counterparts, whose R&D spending dropped by 1.6%. “We cannot afford not to invest in R&D and risk losing our market position,” says Nickie Inger Spile, vice president at Danish biotech Novozymes. The Bagsvaerd-based firm ranked number 10 for R&D spending among global biotechs.