Pharma 50

Oncology tops $84B, Mounjaro surges 124%: Your guide to the 2025 pharma landscape. FY2024 reset the competitive landscape in pharma. While oncology held its top sales standing, the rapid ascent of GLP-1s, market erosion from Humira biosimilars, and the advance of new modalities revised the new biopharma hierarchy. This deep-dive report builds on the Pharma…

Sanofi has officially opened its new $130 million flagship corporate offices in Morristown, New Jersey. The move consolidates nearly 2,000 employees in a 260,000-square-foot facility designed to accelerate the company’s commercial operations and strategic decision-making in its largest market. The facility replaces Sanofi’s older Bridgewater operations about 19 miles away. The opening of the new…

With the $30B Keytruda franchise leading, Oncology maintained its top position among the top 50 drugs in FY2024, but significant shifts occurred across therapeutic areas. Metabolic Diseases saw major growth, as GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic (+26%), Mounjaro (+124%), and Wegovy (+86%) reshaped the diabetes and obesity markets. Landmark trials from late 2023 to present also…

Merck & Co. has secured the top spot for pharmaceutical R&D investment again in 2024 after topping the list last year by a wide margin.  While continuing to channel resources into expanding Keytruda’s oncology indications (with a 2025 patent cliff looming), Merck is also expanding beyond oncology. In cardiovascular, it launched Winrevair for pulmonary arterial…

In 2024, Merck’s Keytruda continued its reign with nearly $29.5 billion in sales, posting solid 17.9% growth over 2023. However, the pharmaceutical landscape is shifting rapidly. The combined forces of GLP-1 receptor agonists used for diabetes and weight loss are mounting a serious challenge; Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic surged 25.8% to $17.5 billion, its sibling Wegovy…

The pharmaceutical industry’s traditional hierarchy continues to face dynamic shifts among the leaders. While Merck ($63.9B) and Pfizer ($62.5B) hold the top spots, double-digit growth from AstraZeneca (~18%), Eli Lilly (~34%), Novo Nordisk (~26%), and Amgen (~18%) signals an accelerating transformation in the sector’s competitive landscape. The continued strength of the GLP-1 market continues to…

Swiss pharma giants Novartis and Roche consistently rank among the top pharma companies in terms of revenue. In 2024, the two companies are also leading in total international patent volume. Meanwhile, smaller firms like Incyte and Vertex Pharma are punching above their weight in market impact. For instance, Incyte, with a market cap of just…

Almost half (22) of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies were based in the U.S., with a strong concentration in the Northeast region, particularly in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. The biggest U.S. firms in this year’s ranking were Merck & Co. (1), Pfizer (2) and Johnson & Johnson (3), respectively — all with headquarters…

While annual reports show broadly similar R&D strategies among Merck & Co., Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie, their 2020–2023 financial metrics reveal a concerning trend. Merck & Co. may be the new top dog of Big Pharma, but the firm’s 1.4% revenue growth in 2023 represents a significant slowdown. Pfizer’s 41.7% revenue decline from…

By analyzing the financials of dozens of Big Pharma firms, we can pinpoint the global hubs that drive much of the industry’s innovation. This analysis reveals regions like New York, New Jersey, Tokyo, Basel, and Frankfurt metro area as core centers for pharma revenue and R&D spending. Unsurprisingly, the area with the densest concentration of…

Despite challenging interest rates and regulatory environment, pharma M&A activity surged in 2023 with deal volume up more than 30% from the prior year based on a review of more than 200 acquisitions since 2018. The total disclosed deal value in 2023 also more than doubled the prior year’s tally to surpass $100 billion. While…

Conventional wisdom holds that rising interest rates curb M&A activity, but an analysis of the pharma and biotech M&A data from 2018 to early October 2023 reveals a counterintuitive trend — at least over the short term. As interest rates have risen in 2023, pharma deal-making has remained strong although the deal size has dipped.…

The pharma industry in 2023 has been marked by an uptick of M&A activity. The year began with a relative frenzy of massive mergers. Pfizer’s $43 billion acquisition of Seagen and Amgen’s $27.8 billion purchase of Horizon Therapeutics earlier in the year were notable examples. But that initial spike of billion-dollar megamergers significantly cooled in…

In many ways, the economic landscape of 2023 has been turbulent. High inflation? Talent shortages? Rising costs of doing business? Volatile currency markets? New regulatory hurdles? Check, check, check. To navigate the choppy waters, a significant number of companies have turned to strategic M&A to drive growth and strengthen product pipelines. Despite these challenges, a…

In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world was desperate for a lifeline, the global pharma sector’s R&D prowess was thrust into the limelight. Now, as the pandemic begins to loosen its grip, the sector continues to make aggressive investments in research and development (R&D). At the tip of the spear of this…

This roundup explores the top 10 pharma employers of 2023, highlighting their strengths and areas for improvement based on employee reviews and industry trends. In our ranking of top  employers, we combined data from multiple sources using a weighted approach, emphasizing employee satisfaction, company benefits and industry recognition. Topping the list are Recursion Pharmaceuticals and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the best-selling pharmaceuticals, leading to shifts in the list with Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty surpassing AbbVie’s Humira for the No. 1 spot in 2021. That momentum continued in 2022, with Pfizer and BioNTech jointly raking in $59.1 billion in revenue from the sales of the COVID-19…

The cell and gene therapy sector is poised to deliver a wave of new therapies with the potential to cure rare and common diseases. As many as 13 new cell or gene therapies could be approved for use in the U.S., Europe, or both by the end of 2023. While manufacturing and regulatory challenges remain,…