Europe’s medical research field has achieved a reach far beyond the region’s own borders. The numbers speak for themselves: “SCImago Journal & Country Rank” found that journal articles from academics from European institutions were cited 1.1 million times in 2022. That’s more than double those from U.S. equivalents.

That research isn’t just sitting in a library, either. Europe is protecting its research at an impressive pace: the World Intellectual Property Organization data counted around 13,000 organic chemistry patents that were filed in 2022. For scale, the U.S. – often known as a bigger, badder, corporate machine than Europe – only managed 12,000. What’s more, this trend has been clear for some time: the European Medicines Agency approved over 770 new medicines between 2015 and 2023. The US Food and Drug Administration, just 416.

Collaboration is a crucial component of this success. European countries – and their world-class universities – often work together on medical research through organizations like the European Union and the European Medicines Agency. That process brings together more resources, data, expertise, and diversity of thought, accelerating the rate at which patent-worthy solutions are discovered. Close relationships between universities and leading companies have also forged an ecosystem that turns innovation into market-ready products.

Of course, funding is a major enabler of discoveries and patents. European countries invest heavily in medical research, partly through government initiatives. Private equity firms have also long taken note of the level of expertise in Europe’s health field. They fund the high research and development costs of private companies in the hopes that they will produce the next big thing.