Top 50 global pharmaceutical companies and their best-selling drugs in 2021

Recently, the American "Pharmaceutical Executive" ("Pharmaceutical Executive") magazine announced its selection of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies in 2021

"Pharmaceutical Manager" has launched the Top50 list for 22 consecutive times

Among the top 50 companies, 37 companies have achieved sales growth (2 newcomers should have increased before entering the list), the largest increase is the United States AbbVie, which increased by 11.

The global king of prescription drugs is still AbbVie’s Humira.

After the epidemic was brought under certain control in May 2020, mergers and acquisitions by medical technology (testing, diagnostics, and smart medical) companies have become popular, while blockbuster transactions by global biopharmaceutical companies have been deserted

On January 11, 2021, Sanofi announced that it had acquired Kymab for US$1.

In terms of generic drugs, Mylan and Pfizer’s subsidiary Puqiang (Pfizer’s patent expired brand and generic drugs business unit) merged to form a new company, Viatris (Huizhi) ranked 19th in the 2021 list , Replacing Mylan (No.

In 2021, the threshold for the top 50 will be greatly increased.

Among the top 50 companies, compared with the R&D expenditures in 2020, eight companies’ R&D expenditures in 2021 have increased by more than 20% year-on-year.

This ranking is based on the sales data of major pharmaceutical companies in 2020.

There are also some minor flaws in this report.

In addition to the above changes, the 2021 ranking has the following characteristics:

1.

The country distribution of the top 50 companies is 15 in the United States, 9 in Japan, 5 in Germany, 5 in China, 3 in France, 2 in Switzerland, 2 in the UK, 2 in India, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Israel, and 1 in Australia.

This year's change is that China has another new pharmaceutical company on the top 50 list, Japan has reduced by one, Germany has increased by one, and Spain has reduced by one

2.

Improving innovation capabilities is still the main means for pharmaceutical companies to improve their competitiveness, and most companies maintain corresponding R&D investment
.
In 2020, the US FDA approved 53 original innovative drugs (40 new molecular entities and 13 new biological products).
The market is generally optimistic about the growth potential of the biopharmaceutical industry
.
In 2021, the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies invested a total of US$141.
2 billion in new drug research and development, an increase of US$10.
9 billion compared with the US$130.
3 billion in R&D expenses in 2020
.
In 2021, the R&D investment rate (R&D expenses as a percentage of sales) of the top 50 companies in 2021 averaged 19.
4%, a significant increase of 1.
2 percentage points from 18.
2% in 2020
.
32 of the top 50 companies have invested more than 15% of their sales revenue in R&D.
This shows that companies still attach great importance to R&D and innovation
.

The amount of R&D investment of TOP10 companies all occupies a pivotal position in the top 50 companies, and the proportion of R&D of each company has been hovering between 10% and 27%
.
In 2012, the highest proportion of R&D was Roche 22.
5%, and the lowest was AstraZeneca 15.
0%; in 2013, the highest was Eli Lilly 27.
4%, and the lowest was 12.
5%; in 2014, the highest Eli Lilly was 26.
4%, and the lowest was Pfizer 13.
9%; in 2015, the highest was Roche 21.
5.
%, the lowest Gilead was 11.
2%; the highest AstraZeneca in 2016 was 24.
1%, the lowest was Gilead 9.
4%, the highest in 2017 Merck was 27.
4%, the lowest was Gilead 13.
1%, the highest in 2018 Sanofi was 24.
3%, and the lowest was AbbVie 13.
7%, the highest Roche in 2019 is 22.
0%, the lowest is AbbVie 15.
9%, the highest in 2020 is Squibb 23.
1%, the lowest is Takeda 15.
2%, the highest in 2021 is Pfizer 24.
9%, and the lowest is AbbVie 13.
1%
.

Among the top 50 companies, 21 companies have invested more than 20% in R&D, which is an increase of 3 companies from the 18 companies in 2020.
Among them are Roche, which is ranked No.
1, Johnson & Johnson, and No.
5.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck at 6th, Pfizer at 8th, AstraZeneca at 11th, Gilead at 13th, Eli Lilly at 14th, etc.
; in addition, some emerging biomedical companies have also become The main force in the research and development of new drugs has obtained very promising drugs through investment.
From the effect point of view, their ranking has improved.
Among them, Biogen and Regeneron are more eye-catching, and their R&D investment rate is always above 20%.
, Its investment rates in 2020 are 37.
3% and 47.
6% respectively
.

The Evaluate Pharma database shows that in 2020, the total global drug R&D expenditure is approximately US$197.
1 billion
.
The total R&D expenses of the top 50 (two of which are not listed) are US$141.
16 billion, accounting for 71.
6%
.
The research and development expenses of the top 10 and top 20 were US$78.
72 billion and US$112.
49 billion, respectively, accounting for 55.
8% and 79.
7% of the top 50
.

3.
The top 20 companies still have an absolute advantage in drug sales

The total sales revenue of prescription drugs of the top 50 companies in 2021 was US$728.
8 billion, a figure that increased by 1.
8% from 2020, and the sales revenue in 2019 was US$715.
9 billion
.

Among the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies, the sales revenue of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in 2021 accounted for 54.
2% of the total sales revenue of the top 50, and the sales revenue of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies accounted for 79.
6% of the total sales revenue of the top 50.
In 2019 These two ratios are also 54.
1% and 78.
9%, respectively.
The concentration of the top 20 prescription drug sales revenue has increased slightly, and it has an absolute advantage in the top 50
.

4.
Emerging biopharmaceutical companies are more active in research and development, and mergers and acquisitions are more frequent

Trends indicate that more and more new drug approvals are sponsored by small clinical stage developers, many of which are funded by private equity and venture capital
.
As the new drugs of emerging biopharmaceutical companies enter the late stage of research and development or after they go public, there will be a variety of development methods.
One is to cooperate with large companies to sell large products with the marketing capabilities of large companies.
Some venture capital shareholders withdrew, the third is to strive for independent development after raising funds from the listing, and to develop to a certain stage or even be acquired after entering the top 50
.

In 2020, the US FDA approved 53 original innovative drugs (40 new molecular entities and 13 new biological products), which is an increase of 5 from 48 in 2019 and lower than 59 in 2018
.
Since the beginning of 2020, the epidemic has spread all over the world, and many companies and drug development plans have been affected by the epidemic.
At the same time, it has also caused a considerable impact on the daily operation of government supervision agencies in various countries
.
Even in such a bad situation, the US FDA has not affected the speed of drug approval in 2020, and the number of new drugs approved has ranked second in the past 21 years
.
Among them, 30 new drugs were approved for "priority review" status, accounting for 57%; 31 were "orphan drugs" for the treatment of rare diseases, accounting for 58%; 42% (22) were "breakthrough drugs" 40% (21) are recognized as "first-in-class" drugs, which provide new treatments for certain diseases
.
There are also 5 identified as "drugs for rare pediatric diseases", showing the concern and support for children's medications
.
From the perspective of treatment, the majority of new drugs approved by the FDA are still tumors, with 18, followed by anti-infectives, 5 for autoimmune diseases, 5 for central nervous system, and 5 for digestive tract and metabolism
.

Table 1 Ranking of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies in 2021

Source: "Pharmaceutical Executive" (The Pharm Exec 50) JUN 2021