The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), which represents bio/pharmaceutical innovator companies and national pharmaceutical trade associations, issued a statement to “welcome” the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation establishing a framework of measures to strengthen Europe’s cloud and AI ecosystem under the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA).  

First adopted and introduced in June (June 2026) by the European Commission, CADA seeks to strengthen the EU’s cloud and AI ecosystem, investment, and infrastructure. It is part of the European Union’s larger strategy and action plan for AI, The AI Continent Action Plan, set out by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the AI Action Summit in February 2025 in Paris, to boost the EU’s AI innovation capabilities through actions and policies. 

EFPIA issued its position on CADA this week (September 18, 2026) following its assessment of the proposed measure and offered key considerations to be made in upcoming implementing legislation under CADA. In introducing CADA, the European Commission said that “ongoing deployment of AI factories and AI gigafactories aims to provide broad access to high-capacity, next-generation computational resources for European businesses and researchers requiring AI capabilities,” in a June 6, 2025, posting. “To complement this, the EU needs to expand its cloud and data center capacity to support the wider deployment and diffusion of AI.” 

CADA is focused on three objectives: 

• Research, development and innovation: supporting efforts to deploy the next generation of cutting-edge and sustainable cloud and AI technologies 

• Capacity: accelerating the conditions for deploying data centers across the EU, focusing on facilities that enhance essential public sector functions 

• Autonomy: introducing a single EU-wide assessment framework for cloud and AI sovereignty, accompanied by a public sector adoption mechanism. 

“The proposal reflects the growing importance of cloud computing, data infrastructure and AI as strategic drivers of Europe’s competitiveness, innovation capacity and technological leadership,” said EFPIA in a September 18. 2026, statement. “Strengthening Europe’s computing capabilities and digital infrastructure can accelerate scientific discovery, support industrial innovation. and improve Europe’s attractiveness for investment.” 

However, EFPIA issued some caution with the policy proposal. EFPIA supports the overall objective of increasing Europe’s ​own ​computing capacity, fostering AI adoption, and reducing barriers to digital innovation but qualifies that “implementation of the proposal must preserve the openness, interoperability and global connectivity that underpin ​global ​pharmaceutical research and development,” said EFPIA in its statement.  

EFPIA says that a final framework should address these key measures: 

• Strengthening access to advanced cloud and AI infrastructure;  

• Supporting data-driven scientific research and innovation;  

• Maintaining a risk-based, proportionate and technology-neutral approach to sovereignty; 

• Avoiding barriers to global scientific collaboration and pharmaceutical R&D activities; and 

• Ensuring coherence with existing EU digital, data and pharmaceutical legislation. 

“The EU’s objective should be to build a stronger and more resilient cloud and AI ecosystem that remains connected and interoperable with global innovation networks,” said EFPIA in its statement. “The Cloud and AI Development Act can support EU competitiveness by strengthening infrastructure, improving access to AI capabilities and providing legal certainty while preserving the openness, interoperability and global connectivity essential for pharmaceutical innovation and patient benefit.” 

Source: EFPIA