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 based in the Northeast.
Other central biopharma hubs include California, which is home to Amgen (Thousand Oaks), Gilead Sciences (Foster City) and Genentech (now a subsidiary of Roche) based in South San Francisco. The city dubs itself the “birthplace of biotech” and continues to be home to some 200 biotech companies. The Chicago metro area is home to AbbVie while Indiana is home to Eli Lilly, one of the hottest pharma companies of late.
Japan had the second-highest number of companies on the list, with nine firms, including Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Astellas Pharma, both based in Tokyo. Europe was also well-represented, with Switzerland being home to four of the top 50 companies, including Roche and Novartis, followed by Germany with three (including, most notably, Bayer and Boehringer Ingelheim), and France, Belgium and Italy each having two. The U.K., Denmark, Spain and Ireland each had one company on the list, with notable firms such as GSK, GLP-1 pioneer Novo Nordisk and Barcelona-based biopharma Grifols.
Here’s a heat density map showing the world’s top biopharma hubs based on an analysis of more than 700 companies. A breakdown of the location of the top 50 pharma locations — with headquarters addresses and 2023 revenue data — follows further down.
Check out the map below to explore the global distribution of these top pharmaceutical companies and discover more about each firm’s headquarters, revenue and other notable details. A full report providing a detailed breakdown of the top 50 is in the works. Revenue numbers are in USD.
Filed Under: Pharma 50
