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.
