This could be the new pharma theme song if the new EU rankings are to be believed. The 2007 edition of the European Commission’s annual scoreboard of spending on R&D shows an overall 10 percent increase by companies, compared with 5.3 percent growth in 2006. The world’s biggest investor in R&D, by the way, is Pfizer, not that the drugmaker has much to show for it these days. (Please click on the chart to see it in greater detail).

Pharma and biotech, however, is now the top R&D investing sector, overtaking technology. Many drugmakers showed what the EU called a “strong increase” in R&D investment - Merck rose 24.3 percent; AstraZeneca and Roche both increased 15.5 percent; Johnson & Johnson added 12.9 percent, and Glaxo was up 10 percent.

For a complete look at the 2007 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, take a peek here.