In his 2024 report on the state of European competitiveness, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi highlighted issues plaguing Europe’s biotech and pharmaceutical sectors as areas for improvement, such as declining innovation and lack of investment. Now, less than a year later, US President Donald Trump may have handed Europe a solution on a silver platter.

Since taking office, President Trump and his erstwhile confidant Elon Musk (while serving as head of the Department of Government Efficiency) have driven forward an unprecedented agenda aiming to cut government spending, with significant and far-reaching impacts in the health industry. As a result, the US government has introduced a level of volatility into its health sector unlike anything seen in decades. The US Department of Health and Human Services has cut more than ten thousand jobs (albeit only to rehire many shortly thereafter). Threats to funding for scientific research, including more than $12 billion slashed from existing grants and contracts, have sparked fears about the durability of clinical studies. In the aftermath, fears of brain drain have emerged. But unlike in recent decades, US researchers are the casualty, not beneficiary.

Instead, Europe looks to see if it can address structural obstacles that have hindered its health industry. With scientists and valuable expertise on the move, Europe should take this opportunity to overcome structural barriers that have limited innovation and research and development (R&D) in the European Union (EU) as a path toward improving European competitiveness in the life sciences.

Diagnosing the problem: Europe’s stagnating industry

Since 2010, Europe’s R&D expenditures gains have increasingly fallen relative to its peers and strategic competitors, including the United States and China. While the United States has seen a 5.5 percent rate of growth in expenditures and China’s spending has seen a whopping 20.7 percent rate of growth, Europe trails with only a 4.4 percent increase. As a result, Europe’s pharmaceutical industry has struggled to compete with the United States and China in developing new drugs.

A lack of spending on research hurts growth. Even without considering the broader societal benefits of a healthy domestic pharmaceutical sector, R&D alone added more than $225 billion to global GDP in 2022, which Europe received 29 percent of compared to the United States’ 55 percent. The value this industry can bring to a stagnating European economy is significant.

As Europe looks to repower its economy, the life science industry presents a golden opportunity if it can take advantage of this rapidly growing high-value sector.

Europe has plenty of concerns it needs to address in the life sciences industry, including over intellectual property rights or regulatory red tape in areas like pharmaceuticals. However, solving the R&D issue should be the priority to attract greater investment and drive innovation in Europe. That means Europe must attract the best and brightest minds available for such R&D efforts—which is where the Trump administration has done Europe a favor.

Injecting talent into Europe’s system

According to a recent poll of more than 1,200 US scientists, 75 percent would consider leaving the United States after recent events have introduced concerns about job safety and funding to the US life science ecosystem. The question for the EU will be how to win the race to attract departing scientists to Europe.

The European Commission has already begun to consider options to streamline visa applications for these experts, as well as programs to fund their research. The EU has already been working to improve its homegrown STEM talent in recent years but still faces long-term negative trends in this area. The Commission appears to have identified US scientists as a quick solution to invigorate its domestic talent pool.

While this path seems promising, the EU will need to overcome the challenge posed by diverse national policies to properly enact its plans. As of now, variations in visa policies are poised to lead to uneven implementation across the bloc, requiring greater coordination at the EU level to navigate challenges as they emerge.

In a vacuum, the Commission’s plan is nearly a match made in heaven—visas and funding will attract great experts who might revive Europe’s life science industry. However, Europe won’t be the only country fighting to boost its talent pool.

China will undoubtedly make a strong push to win over as many US scientists as possible to continue its attempts to dominate the life science sector. Since the turn of the century, China has emerged as one of the top leaders in pharmaceutical R&D. Meanwhile, Europe has dropped from neck-and-neck competition with the United States for domination in the pharmaceutical industry to a distant third in this race, weakening its ability to shape global health policy at a time when health security has become a matter of national security.

If Europe wants to make strides in its competitiveness agenda by leveraging the life sciences, it will need to outcompete and overcome China in areas like this to ensure that Europe does not lose further ground against its peers. China has already unlocked generous funding for researchers in similar situations in the past, meaning money alone might not be enough to win the race. However, by prioritizing solving issues that have decreased the attractiveness of Europe’s innovation landscape such as an overly complicated regulatory environment, Europe may remove barriers that might otherwise tip the balance of power in China’s favor.

The Trump Administration has opened the door for a major realignment of the global life science industry. Whether Europe or China will be the beneficiary of such a change remains to be seen.

Emma Nix is an assistant director with the Atlantic Council Europe Center.