From the magazine
Europe’s second chance
Europe wrote the rules of the digital age and let American companies build the platforms. Christina Egelund, Denmark’s minister for science, higher education and digital affairs, believes the same mistake is about to repeat itself with artificial intelligence, quantum and biotech. Her argument: a continent that only regulates what others build does not get to shape the future of its own health.
The drug makers are committing. Europe is waiting.
For years, Europe’s low medicine prices and its patchwork of national markets were things it could live with. America’s new pricing rules has turned both against it. Bas Amesz, who a decade ago proposed a different way to pay for medicines, argues the shock is Europe’s chance to buy innovation as a single bloc, and that its instinct to wait is the real danger.