Global pharmaceutical company ranking TOP10

With the release of Bayer and Merck's 2020 financial reports, the latest TOP10 rankings of global pharmaceutical companies have also surfaced. This year's ranking has changed a lot from last year.

In terms of total revenue, the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies are ranked in order: Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Novartis, Merck, AbbVie, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Bayer.

According to the revenue statistics of the pharmaceutical business, the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies ranked in order are: Roche, Novartis, AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda.

The main reason for the major changes in the ranking is that the pharmaceutical giants have made mergers and acquisitions or have lost business in the past three years, including Takeda's acquisition of Shire, Bristol-Myers Squibb's acquisition of Xinji, and AbbVie's acquisition of Allergan. In the TOP10 list. However, the former cosmic pharmaceutical company Pfizer has dropped to a relatively low position in the TOP10 ranking due to the divestiture of its generic drug business.

Under this circumstance, based on some revenue and product data of TOP10 pharmaceutical companies, we have a look at the large pattern of global pharmaceutical companies.

01 The ranking will change in the future

At the beginning of 2019, BMS announced the acquisition of Xinji for US$74 billion, and the transaction was completed in November of the same year. BMS's 2020 financial report incorporates the sales revenue of new base products, with a total revenue of 42.518 billion US dollars for the first time in the ranks of the world's TOP10 pharmaceutical companies, ranking 8th on the list.

On May 8, 2020, AbbVie's acquisition of Allergan was settled. This acquisition, which was initiated in June 2019, has a transaction equity value of approximately US$63 billion. It is through this acquisition that AbbVie has been promoted from the 8th position of the global pharmaceutical company to within the TOP5, and has seized the commanding heights of the global medical beauty industry.

From the official bid of 60 billion U.S. dollars on April 19, 2018 to the completion of the acquisition on January 8, 2019, Takeda took more than 8 months to finally win the Shire and move towards the goal of the top 10 multinational pharmaceutical companies. Although its total revenue is not equal to Bayer, it is ranked 11th, but because its pharmaceutical business exceeds Bayer by more than 10 billion US dollars, and it is far ahead of AstraZeneca, Amgen, Gilead and Eli Lilly and other companies, it has joined the TOP10 pharmaceutical business club.

As the saying goes, “Dividing a long time must be combined and a long time must be divided.” In the early 21st century, Pfizer, which was keen to “buy, buy, and buy”, completely completed the divesti With the divestiture of the healthcare business, Pfizer’s overall ranking of the pharmaceutical industry has fallen to 9th, and its pharmaceutical business has also fallen to 7th.

Merck is also taking the "slimming" route, incorporating women's health products (including NuvaRing, Implanon), patented brand drugs (including Zetia, etc.) and biosimilar drugs (including infliximab, etanercept and trastuzumab) The new company Organon, a new company with assets such as monoclonal antibody analogues, will complete the divestiture in 2021Q2, which will naturally affect Merck’s revenue scale in 2021.

In contrast, although traditional giants such as Johnson & Johnson, Roche, and Novartis will actively invest or acquire some small Biotechs, their overall business layout still tends to take a steady path, and there has been no large-scale mergers and acquisitions for a long time. So in 2021, will you continue to hold the ground, or maybe there will be some "unexpected" mergers and acquisitions?

AstraZeneca's revenue volume has grown rapidly, and its pharmaceutical business revenue is ranked 11th, and there is still a gap of "Ochitinib" from Takeda, which ranks in the front. However, AstraZeneca announced in December 2020 that it had acquired Alexion, a leader in complement drugs, for US$39 billion. When the transaction is completed in 2021Q3, the company's pharmaceutical revenue will reach about US$32 billion, and it will also squeeze Takeda into the TOP10 queue. .

02 Heavy products are still the key

The ranking of pharmaceutical giants is very dependent on the sales performance of certain "blockbusters", with AbbVie, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb being the most representative. These three companies have blockbuster orders with sales of more than US$10 billion. The three core products with the highest sales account for more than 50% of the company’s total revenue.

The business is highly concentrated on a few products, and when the drugs mature, it will also put a lot of pressure on investors and corporate executives. Once the patent protection period is over, generic drugs will occupy a large area of the market. If there is no relay of new products, pharmaceutical companies with highly concentrated products are very likely to experience a "cliff-like" decline in total revenue.

In order to continuously launch heavyweight new drugs, giants often need "external acquisition + internal independent research and development" to develop some cutting-edge drugs and expand pipeline product reserves. The clinical development arms race has also led to a surge in R&D funds that giants need to invest. Previously, a company invested US$10 billion in R&D expenses per year. In 2020, four companies have invested more than US$10 billion in R&D. From high to low, they are Merck (135.58), Johnson & Johnson (121.59), and Roche (121.53). And BMS (111.43). Among the TOP10 giants in total global revenue, the R&D expenses of eight companies exceed 15% of the total revenue, of which Merck and BMS accounted for 28.2% and 26.2% respectively.

03 Medicine is still a good track

In 2020, the new crown pneumonia epidemic will hit the global economy hard. Governments of various countries have struggled to balance between "life preservation" and "livelihood preservation". The GDP decline in various countries has generally hit a new high, the global economy has shrunk significantly, and most industries have shown negative growth.

However, looking at the entire pharmaceutical and health industry, except for a few individual companies that have experienced some fluctuations due to the epidemic, product patent expiration, and business spin-offs, most companies can basically maintain the growth trend. Due to the pandemic, the public is paying more attention to health and the pharmaceutical industry than before. This has stimulated the business growth of the pharmaceutical industry to a certain extent, and has also made more and more people realize that the pharmaceutical industry is a good track worth investing in. .

Note: Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, AbbVie, Sanofi, BMS have accumulated more than US$100 billion in drug revenue in the past three years.

For the giants on the list, the pharmaceutical business is their main business. For companies other than Johnson & Johnson and Bayer, the pharmaceutical business accounts for more than 70% of their company's total revenue. According to the ranking of pharmaceutical business, the total revenue of TOP10 companies in 2020 will exceed 470 billion U.S. dollars. The cumulative revenue of the pharmaceutical business in the past three years is close to 1,300 billion U.S. dollars. The total revenue of the first eight pharmaceutical businesses in the past three years has exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars.