Pharmaceutical Industry

Traditional Pharmaceutical Industry

The traditional research-intensive pharmaceutical industry is also known as the “brand-name” or “innovator” pharmaceutical industry. The largest companies in this sector are often referred to as “Big Pharma.” They are represented by the trade association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America (PhRMA). This sector focuses on the discovery, development, and production of new chemical entities and new biologic entities. These multibillion dollar corporations, however, are not limited solely to drug products or vaccine sales. Many of these corporations include other healthcare-related products, such as nutrition products, dietary supplements, diagnostics, medical devices, and other consumer products.

Relative rankings of the world's top pharmaceutical companies change yearly due to sales, patent expirations, mergers, acquisitions, and other practices. Based on 2007 rankings (compiled from Fortune 500 lists), 12 pharmaceutical corporations accounted for 60% of the total global pharmaceutical sales. The leading companies-based on sales, headquarters country, revenue, and profit (as a percentage of revenues)-were (1) Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), $53.3 billion, 20.7%; (2) Pfizer (U.S.), $52.4 billion, 36.9%; (3) GlaxoSmithKline (U.K.), $42.7 billion, 23.2%; (4) Novartis (Switzerland), $37 billion, 19.4%; (5) Sanofi-Aventis (France), $37 billion, 13.6%; (6) Roche Group (Switzerland), $34.7 billion, 18.1%; (7) AstraZeneca (U.K.), $26.5 billion, 22.8%; (8) Merck & Co. (U.S.), $22.6 billion, 19.6%; (9) Abbott Laboratories (U.S.), $22.5 billion, 7.6%; (10) Wyeth (U.S.), $20.4 billion, 20.6%; (11) Bristol-Myers Squibb (U.S.), $17.9 billion, 8.8%; and (12) Eli Lilly (U.S.), $15.7 billion, 17%.

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