For the first time in history, health R&D investments stagnate in Europe since 2010, after decades of increase, reports Deloitte on behalf of Janssen.

To put this in perspective, 60% of the 47 billion euros invested in 2011 were by the pharmaceutical industry and 40% by member states - this amount being 3% of EU total healthcare expenditure.

Private investments have stagnated for the first time, while public investments decreased by 1% - US investment decreased even more sharply, but remains twice as high as in Europe (91 billion, of which 53% are private investments).

Within Europe, the major investor in healthcare R&D is Germany (9.4 million) followed by France (8.3 million) then the UK (7.4 million).

This reports shows that the decline is evidently due to the economic situation but also to limited reward mechanisms for innovative technologies.

In the context of ageing populations and increasing chronic pathologies, this situation appears undesirable - preventing millions of people having improved health.