Latest Rankings: Global Top 10 Pharmaceutical Enterprises in 2016

Let us review what the changes were in the rankings of global pharmaceutical market in 2016.

Pfizer and Novartis still ranked first and second, and Roche which ranked third in 2015 was surpassed by MSD of which the performance was largely improved in 2016. GSK showed a strong recovery in 2016, moving up 3 positions, with the largest growth; AbbVie also moved up, and surpassed AstraZeneca to rank ninth.

1 Pfizer

2016 operating revenue (M $): 52,800

2016 revenue growth: +8%

Pfizer was still the leader in global pharmaceutical market.

2 Novartis

2016 operating revenue (M $): 48,518

2016 revenue growth: -2%

Novartis was still the second, but its new drug sales growth was offset by the sales decline of its cancer targeting drug Gleevec, and its performance was also affected by the USD appreciation.

3 Merck Sharp & Dohme

2016 operating revenue (M $): 39,807

2016 revenue growth: +1%

The main reason for MSD’s moving up of 2 positions to rank third was that the sales of the immunotherapy drug Keytruda under it reached USD 483 million, growing by 1.25 times, which was higher than market expectation.

4 Roche

2016 operating revenue (M $ ): 39,252

2016 revenue growth: +5%

Ranking fourth in 2016 revenue rankings, Roche obtained growth mainly from pharmaceutical products like Perjeta, Herceptin, and Actemra/RoActemra, but sales of some of its pharmaceutical products including Pegasys, Tarceva and Lucentis declined.

5 GlaxoSmithKline

2016 operating revenue (M $ ): 37,929

2016 revenue growth: +4%

HIV was the most brilliant business sector of GSK, with the annual revenue of USD 4.836 billion, and Triumeq became one of the best-selling HIV new drugs marketed in recent years.

There were 11 new products of GSK marketed in 2016, of which the sales accounted for 24% of the overall sales.

6 Sanofi

2016 operating revenue (M $ ): 36,128

2016 revenue growth: -1%

Sanofi’s biological drug Genzyme business experienced double-digit growth both in the developed markets and emerging markets, mainly driven by products treating multiple sclerosis.

7 Johnson & Johnson

2016 operating revenue (M $ ): 33,464

2016 revenue growth: +7%

The immune drugs of Johnson & Johnson had strong growth, growing by 15.1% year on year, especially, STELARA® and SIMPONIARIA® had good momentum in the U.S. market.

Its oncology drugs grew by 23.7% year on year, the mantle cell lymphoma orphan drug IMBRUVICA® (ibrutinib) continued the strong sales, and the multiple myeloma drug DARZALEX® obtained approval of 34 countries besides maintaining the strong momentum in the U.S. market.

8 Gilead Sciences

2016 operating revenue (M $ ): 30,390

2016 revenue growth: -7%

Sales of Gilead’s antiviral products including anti-HIV and other antiviral products and products for chronic HCV declined to an extent, which reached USD 27.7 billion in 2016 while USD 30.2 billion in 2015.

The top 10 most profitable varieties of Gilead will still mainly be the anti-HIV drugs and anti-HCV drugs in 2022 as shown by EvaluatePharma data, which will include 5 anti-HIV drugs, 1 anti-HCV drug, and 1 anti-inflammatory drug (Filgotinib), and include 3 varieties currently under Phase III clinical trial.

9 AbbVie

2016 operating revenue (M $): 25,638

2016 revenue growth: +12%

AbbVie grew by 12% in 2016 to rank ninth, and Humira had good sales, as always.

10 AstraZeneca

2016 operating revenue (M $): 23,002

2016 revenue growth: -5%

Despite the decline across the developed markets like the U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian markets, AstraZeneca’s performance outshone others in emerging markets (including China, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and Turkey), especially China contributed USD 2.636 billion (+10%) sales revenue, accounting for 45% of the entire emerging markets, and became the strongest support for AstraZeneca’s global performance, and the total growth of emerging markets outside of China was 3%.

Revenue of its blockbuster lung cancer drug Iressa declined by 16% in the Chinese market, as affected by the drug price negotiation in China in June last year and competition of South Korean market generic drugs.

Which companies will ascend to global TOP10 this year? Will the giants like Bayer and Eli Lilly be back to the rankings? Let’s wait and see.

By MedTrend