Germany
Recently, German companies have increased investment in international R&D. Expenditures on R&D in Germany have been on the rise, and simultaneously, the proportion of foreign R&D investment has risen to 35% of total R&D expenditures. The increase in foreign R&D investments did not negatively impact domestic R&D investments, as companies consider foreign R&D to be complementary to domestic R&D as opposed to its replacement.
In 2015, R&D expenditures of German countries abroad reached €24 billion ($28.3 billion). Between 2003 and 2015, expenditures of foreign German companies grew 91.7% to approximately €69 billion ($81.3 billion). Sixty percent of this increase is attributed to companies located in Germany, while the remaining 40% was contributed by foreign German companies. The pharmaceutical sector was a major driver of this growth, as it represented an additional 32% growth in foreign German companies’ R&D expenditures post-2003. In 2015, the chemical industry represented 28% of R&D expenditures of Germany companies abroad, while the pharmaceutical industry made up 58%.
