Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

FiercePharma reports that the 10 largest pharma companies in the world in 2018 by sales revenue were Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Pfizer, Novartis, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, AbbVie, Bayer, and Eli Lilly. Global drug sales reached $1.2 trillion in 2018, according to Statista.com. Sales in the United States comprise about 40 percent of this total. Despite increasing revenue, pharmaceutical sales at the top 50 companies in the United States have slowed in recent years. Industry mergers and acquisitions, expiring patents, pressures by insurance companies and governments to reduce costs, and some high-profile Phase III drug development failures have slowed growth. Yet, the overall outlook is generally positive. The increasing role of pharmaceuticals as a first-line treatment option for many diseases in the developed world are fueling demand. More and more often, physicians are opting to prescribe a pharmaceutical first in lieu of a more invasive procedure, such as surgery.