The high demand for safe and effective COVID-19 treatments has caused a sea-change in the pharmaceutical industry — and a dramatically different Pharma 50 list of the largest pharmaceutical companies from the year before. 

COVID-19 vaccines reshape the marketplace

Pfizer, along with BioNTech, developed the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine. Comirnaty is already one of the best-selling drugs ever, nearly doubling Pfizer’s revenue to roughly $81 billion in 2021 and rocketing it to the top among the world’s largest pharma companies. 

Meanwhile, BioNTech brought in nearly €19.0 billion in revenue in 2021, almost 40 times what it made a year before. As a result, it joined the Pharma 50 at No. 18. Another successful COVID-19 vaccine creator, Moderna, brought in nearly $18.5 billion — 23 times its 2020 revenues — enabling it to join the list at No. 23. Ditto for Sinovac, creator of China’s CoronaVac vaccine. Sinovac’s 2021 revenue was $19.4 billion — 38 times higher than 2020 — winning it a No. 21 spot. 

Maintaining that sales momentum may prove impossible given the pandemic’s current trajectory, but expect the industry dynamism to continue. The mRNA technology behind the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines could have many other uses, including for treating cancers and other infectious diseases.  

As the pharma landscape continues to evolve, we’ll continue to annually collect data on annual revenue, R&D spend, employee numbers and leadership. 

Check out our related features related to the largest pharmaceutical companies:

• The 10 fastest growing pharma companies of 2021
• Pharma’s top 20 R&D spenders in 2021
• 50 of 2021’s best-selling pharmaceuticals
• The 15 best pharma companies to work for
• 10 leading pharma executives
• 50 leading cell and gene therapy companies
• The 22 most innovative biotech products of 2022
• Pharma 50 video features

And click through our Pharma 50 report’s 2022 listings and learn about the companies powering the global pharmaceutical industry

 

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