TOP 50 PHARMA COMPANIES
The top 50 pharma companies continue to show strength, with global drug sales still on the rise. In 2019, the industry saw a $100B increase to a record $1.2T. As in the past, the top 50 make up almost a whopping 70% of the total global market. While the Top 50 is not growing at the same rate as the global market, it is still increasing year after year.
We saw a 5% growth rate with a majority (41) of the top companies experiencing an increase in revenue. Pfizer remained in the number one spot, while Roche moved up to take the number two spot over Novartis. Takeda jumped into the top 10 with the acquisition of Shire, pushing Eli Lilly further down. Although the pandemic continues to be an area of great concern, there is good news on the horizon. Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax, AstraZeneca, J&J and many others are in trials that are showing promise, and there is an expectation that by spring or summer of 2021 we will have a vaccine ready to deliver. Companies are ranked by their 2019 pharmaceutical revenue as furnished by their annual reports and publicly available sources (figures of non-U.S. companies were converted to U.S. dollars from various currencies, using end of the year exchange rates for 2018). From companies with multiple sectors, only pharmaceutical revenues were extracted from reports to create an equal playing field. We also revised 2018 earnings to align “apples to apples” revenue reporting with 2019 figures. Some companies were removed from the list because of mergers and acquisitions. Celene was purchased by Bristol Myers Squibb and Shire was purchased by Takeda. Here’s a snapshot of where the Top 50 (based on 2019 revenue) were at year’s end. We have tracked movement with regard to both ranking and revenue changes as compared with 2018.