The TOP list of pharmaceutical companies' R&D investment is released!

Although the revenue of most pharmaceutical companies has declined due to the impact of the epidemic in 2020, their R&D investment has reached unprecedented heights
.

Recently, FierceBiotech released a list of the top ten pharmaceutical companies with the largest R&D investment in 2020
.

In 2020, almost all Top10 companies have increased their R&D investment (except Novartis and Sanofi), and the R&D investment of many companies accounted for more than 20% of revenue
.

Last year, many R&D and transactions were focused on COVID-19, but more traditional oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and antibiotics were also the focus of R&D investment
.

Last year, Roche invested $13.
9 billion in research and development, ranking first
.

The biggest rise in the ranking was Bristol-Myers Squibb, whose research budget almost doubled to 11.
14 billion U.
S.
dollars, rising from eighth in 2019 to fourth in 2020
.

       In addition, Eli Lilly returned to the top ten, replacing AstraZeneca
.

       1 Roche

       Roche continued to top the list of R&D investment.
In 2020, R&D investment was 13 billion Swiss francs (13.
9 billion U.
S.
dollars), an increase of 1.
3 billion Swiss francs from 2019, and R&D investment accounted for 22.
2% of sales
.

       Although Roche was affected by the epidemic and its sales revenue has been hit, sales for the whole year of 2020 have declined
.

       Roche's R&D investment has soared because of the soaring investment in COVID diagnostic agents and also abandoning some R&D projects
.

       However, Roche has become more and more courageous in the field of AD, continue to develop Alzheimer's disease drugs, and plans to cooperate with Cambridge Quantum Computing in the United Kingdom to explore the potential of this emerging technology in the design and delivery of new therapeutic compounds.

.

       In addition, Roche’s blockbuster PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq has achieved positive results in phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of early-stage triple-negative breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer patients
.

       2 Merck

       Merck’s R&D investment in 2020 is 13.
6 billion U.
S.
dollars, an increase of 3.
7 billion U.
S.
dollars from 2019.
R&D investment and sales accounted for 28.
3%, rising from the third place last year to the second place
.

       Merck’s huge R&D expenditure is related to a series of COVID-19-related transactions in the second half of 2020
.

       However, expenditures related to the new crown virus do not seem to have achieved satisfactory results
.

       In addition to COVID, Merck’s oncology R&D pipeline has always been a key area of ​​deployment
.
The company has reached a research and development cooperation with Artiva Biotherapeutics to develop CAR-natural killer cell therapy for the treatment of solid tumors and enter the field of cell therapy
.
In November last year, Merck acquired VelosBio and acquired the potential "first-in-class" antibody-conjugated drug VLS-101 targeting receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1)
.

       3 Johnson & Johnson

       Johnson & Johnson's R&D investment in 2020 was US$12.
15 billion, an increase of US$790 million compared to 2019.
R&D investment accounted for 14.
7% of sales, falling from second place last year to third place
.

       Like other pharmaceutical giants, Johnson & Johnson has been developing a new crown vaccine
.
Although not as dominating the limelight as the emerging mRNA vaccine, the single-dose new crown vaccine Ad26.
COV2.
S developed by the company has received emergency use authorization granted by the FDA
.

       In addition to COVID, Johnson & Johnson is also keen to acquire biotech companies
.
In August last year, Johnson & Johnson reached a $6.
5 billion acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals and obtained the anti-FcRn antibody nipocalimab, which has the potential to treat a variety of autoimmune diseases
.
The BCMA-targeted CAR-T therapy jointly developed by Johnson & Johnson and Legend Bio has completed the submission of a regulatory application to the US FDA and is expected to be approved this year
.

       Johnson & Johnson also appointed Dr.
Najat Khan as its chief data science officer in 2020.
She will continue to serve as the company's head of global R&D strategy and operations, but is now also responsible for data science
.
It is hoped that through in-depth data mining, the efficiency of research and development can be improved
.
 

       4 Bristol-Myers Squibb

       Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) invested US$11.
14 billion in R&D in 2020, an increase of US$5 billion from 2019.
R&D investment accounted for 26% of sales, rising from the eighth place last year to the fourth place
.

       Through the acquisition of Celgene, BMS has achieved substantial growth in sales and R&D investment
.
The research investment of this pharmaceutical company has almost doubled from US$6.
15 billion in 2019 to US$11.
14 billion in 2020
.

       After BMS acquired Xinji, the first thing it did was to cut expenses.
One of the biggest cuts was the transaction between Celgene and Jounce Therapeutics, which returned the JTX-8064 global equity to Jounce
.

       The biggest asset that BMS has acquired from Celgene's acquisition is its leading CAR-T therapy Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel), which was approved by the US FDA in February this year for the treatment of certain large B-cell lymphoma patients
.
In addition, Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel), a CAR-T therapy targeting B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) jointly developed by BMS and bluebird bio, was also approved in March to treat relapsed/refractory multiple cases that have received more than four previous therapies.
Adult patients with sexual myeloma (R/R MM)
.
Therefore, BMS has become the only company that has achieved the approval and listing of two CAR-T cell therapies "CD19 and BCMA"
.

       In addition to the current CAR-T products, the company is still looking for new development directions
.
In September last year, BMS exercised a global exclusive license option for Obsidian Therapeutics to obtain a cell therapy candidate based on the cytoDRiVE technology controlled expression of the immunomodulatory factor CD40L
.
This is the first time that BMS and Obsidian have cooperated to develop new cell therapies
.

       In addition, BMS is expanding its cardiovascular research and development pipeline by acquiring MyoKardia for USD 13.
1 billion and obtaining the cardiovascular drug mavacamten, which has passed the US FDA breakthrough therapy certification
.

       5 Pfizer

       Pfizer invested US$9.
4 billion in R&D in 2020, an increase of US$750 million from 2019.
R&D investment accounted for 22.
4% of sales, which is still ranked fifth, just like last year
.

       Pfizer has taken the lead in the development of the new crown vaccine due to its cooperation with BioNTech of Germany
.
They collaborated to develop the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the FDA for emergency use
.
Pfizer said that the vaccine is estimated to bring about 15 billion U.
S.
dollars in revenue in 2021
.

       It is worth mentioning that Pfizer’s clinical development success rate has been significantly improved in recent years.
As of the end of 2020, the company’s R&D project for phase 1 clinical trials has finally successfully advanced to phase 3 clinical trials, and a 5-year clinical trial with positive results The success rate reached 21%, much higher than the 9% reported last year
.

       Historically, Pfizer’s clinical research success rate has actually lagged behind its peers
.
In 2015, only 5% of Pfizer's first human trials were approved, and the industry's success rate was 11%
.
Pfizer reported on its Investor Day last year that its success rate in 2019 was 9%, compared to the industry average of 8%
.
But now, Pfizer can claim a major leap in its success rate
.

       In addition, Pfizer also eliminated several R&D projects
.
Last year, Pfizer stopped prescribing the non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug PF-05221304, which was listed as a fast track by the US FDA
.
Another interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase-4 (IRAK4) small molecule inhibitor PF-06650833 and the prostate cancer vaccine PF-06753512 were also abandoned
.

       6 Novartis

       Novartis invested US$8.
9 billion in R&D in 2020, a decrease of US$500 million from 2019.
The proportion of R&D investment in sales dropped from 19.
8% in 2019 to 18.
2% last year
.
Dropped from fourth place last year to sixth
.
Novartis is the only pharmaceutical company among the top five R&D expenditures in 2020 that has a lower investment than the previous year
.

       Compared with companies such as Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, the company was relatively quiet in the development of new crown vaccines and therapeutic drugs last year, and only signed contracts with other pharmaceutical companies in the fourth quarter to help produce COVID vaccines
.

       However, Novartis has strong momentum in regulatory approvals
.
The company's MET inhibitor Tabrecta (capmatinib) received accelerated approval from the FDA and became the first approved therapy for the treatment of NSCLC patients with skipping mutations in exon 14 of MET
.
Its CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody drug Kesimpta (ofatumumab) has also been approved by the US FDA for the treatment of relapsing adult multiple sclerosis (RMS) patients
.

       The company's RNAi therapy Leqvio (inclisiran) has also been approved by the European Commission for the treatment of adult hypercholesterolemia and mixed dyslipidemia
.
Novartis's blockbuster heart failure drug Entresto has also received FDA approval for extended indications for the treatment of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)
.

       Novartis also continues to implement its digital strategy.
Novartis has signed a long-term partnership agreement with Microsoft, planning to use AI for drug molecular design, the development of specific drug dosage administration programs, and the production optimization of CAR-T therapies
.
Novartis is also developing remote clinical trial tools and establishing digital therapies
.

       7 GlaxoSmithKline

       GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) invested US$7.
7 billion in R&D in 2020, an increase of US$1.
3 billion from 2019, and R&D investment accounted for 16.
1% of sales
.
GSK's R&D investment has increased by 12% compared with last year, rising from the tenth place last year to the seventh place
.

       As one of the world's largest vaccine drug manufacturers, it has fallen behind its rivals in the current round of new crown vaccine development competition, which has affected its reputation
.
Fortunately, the neutralizing antibody therapy VIR-7831 jointly developed by the company and Vir Biotechnology has good clinical trial results in the treatment of early-stage COVID-19 patients.
The two companies have submitted an emergency use authorization application to the US FDA
.

       And GSK has also suffered a severe setback in the field of oncology.
Its PD-L1/TGFb fusion protein bintrafusp alfa (M7824) failed in NSCLC, and another promising tumor drug, dostarlimab, suffered unexpected delays in inspections
.
In addition, the phase II clinical research project of the LAG-3 monoclonal antibody GSK2831781 (IMP731) for active ulcerative enteritis in cooperation with Australian biotechnology Immutep has been terminated
.

       GSK also lost some key management personnel, including Amir Reichman, former head of the core technology of global vaccine engineering, and Jack Bailey, head of US pharmaceuticals
.

       8 Sanofi

       Sanofi invested US$6.
6 billion in R&D in 2020, a decrease of US$500 million from 2019, and R&D investment accounted for 15.
3% of sales
.
Sanofi’s R&D investment has been reduced by more than 8% compared with last year, from sixth place last year to eighth place
.

       In 2020, Sanofi’s newly appointed CEO Paul Hudson adjusted its R&D pipeline, abandoning part of the company’s weak R&D pipeline, and increasing the development of cancer, rare diseases and other key projects
.

       Last year, the company signed a series of cooperation projects
.
GSK and Kymera reached a $150 million cooperation to jointly develop a protein degradation therapy for IRAK4
.
In November, the company acquired Kiadis for 308 million euros ($358 million), and obtained a variety of ready-to-use NK cell treatments
.
The largest transaction was the US$3.
7 billion acquisition of Principia Biopharma and the acquisition of three Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors
.

       In the company’s internal R&D, the PD-1 inhibitor Libtayo (cemiplimab) jointly developed by the company and Regeneron has won two more indications.
It has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of advanced basal cell carcinoma and the first-line treatment for advanced non-advanced patients with high PD-L1 expression.
Patients with small cell lung cancer
.
The company's CD38 antibody Sarclisa (isatuximab) has also recently been approved by the FDA to be used in combination with standard therapies of carfilzomib and dexamethasone (Kd) to treat patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM)
.

       In the fight against the epidemic, the mRNA vaccine developed by Sanofi and Translate Bio of the United States has entered clinical trials
.
Although Sanofi's vaccine research and development progress has been significantly slower than its competitors, the new crown vaccine may be the same as the flu vaccine, and it may need to be vaccinated every year in the future.
This will give Sanofi still a chance to win a part of the market
.

       9 AbbVie

       AbbVie invested US$6.
55 billion in R&D in 2020, an increase of US$1.
5 million from 2019, and R&D investment accounted for 14.
3% of sales
.
AbbVie's R&D investment has fallen sharply in 2019, but it still ranks seventh overall
.
In 2020, with the addition of Allergan, the R&D investment increased slightly, but the company's ranking dropped to ninth
.

       AbbVie’s blockbuster TNF inhibitor Humira (adalimumab), with annual sales of nearly US$20 billion, is close to the patent cliff of 2023.
The company has expanded its biotechnology transaction, hoping to make up for the upcoming emergence by purchasing innovative technologies from experience.
Sales gap
.
At present, in addition to Humira, AbbVie's inflammatory disease pipeline includes the IL-23 inhibitor Skyrizi (risankizumab), and the JAK inhibitor upadacitinib
.

       In other areas, AbbVie has reached a cooperation with Frontier Medicines to use its unique chemical proteomics technology platform to develop protein degradation therapies for "un-druggable" targets
.
AbbVie and Genmab have reached a partnership and paid an upfront payment of US$750 million to jointly develop the next generation of bispecific antibody products
.
Including the bispecific antibody epcoritamab
.
AbbVie has also reached a nearly US$3 billion cooperation with Tianjing Bio to jointly develop the anti-CD47 monoclonal antibody lemzoparlimab for the treatment of different types of cancer
.

       AbbVie is also involved in the development of COVID-19-related drugs, but no drugs have been approved yet
.
Last year, AbbVie and Hebo Medicine reached a cooperation agreement to obtain authorization from Hebo Medicine to carry out a phase 1 clinical trial of the fully human neutralizing antibody ABBV-47D11 for the prevention and treatment of coronavirus
.

       10 Eli Lilly

       Eli Lilly spent US$6.
08 billion in R&D in 2020, an increase of US$480 million from 2019, and R&D investment accounted for 24.
8% of sales
.
Sanofi's R&D investment increased by 9% compared with last year, returning to the TOP10 list
.

       After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, Eli Lilly quickly reached a cooperation with AbCellera to develop a neutralizing antibody therapy bamlanivimab, becoming the first neutralizing antibody therapy granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the US FDA
.

       Eli Lilly has also increased its investment in the field of gene therapy
.
At the end of 2020, Eli Lilly acquired Prevail for US$1.
04 billion and obtained two clinical-stage R&D projects, including the lead gene therapy product PR001 for Parkinson’s disease (PD-GBA) and neuron disease with GBA1 mutations.
Patients with Xie disease (nGD); and PR006 for frontotemporal dementia (FTD-GRN) patients with GRN mutations
.

       In addition, Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s disease antibody therapy donanemab reached its primary endpoint in a phase 2 clinical trial
.
Eli Lilly’s dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist, tirzepatide, has had positive results in a number of phase 3 clinical trials.
Tirzepatide defeated Novo Nordisk’s smeglutide on multiple indicators.
The drug is expected to become its The successor to the GLP-1 agonist dulaglutide
.
In addition, Eli Lilly is also conducting trials of tirzepatide in the treatment of obesity and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
.

       Concluding remarks

       The new crown epidemic in 2020 has affected various industries, but pharmaceutical research and development are still in full swing
.
From the TOP10 R&D investment, it can be seen that many companies on the list have a significant increase in R&D investment as a percentage of revenue, and half of the companies’ R&D investment accounted for more than 20% of revenue
.
As early as 2018, the top 15 pharmaceutical companies by revenue had a total R&D investment of more than 100 billion U.
S.
dollars
.
Three years later, the top ten companies with R&D investment reached this amount
.

       New drug research and development has always been a high-input and high-risk industry, and it is hoped that these investments can be transformed into clinical practice and truly benefit patients
.

       Reference source: https://       Editor in charge: Liuli

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