Pharmaceutical industry - number of new substances 1998-2020

Between 2016 and 2020, American companies introduced a total of 138 new chemical or biological substances. Within the same period, Europe and Japan produced 64 and 38 new entities, respectively.

Total R&D spending

In 2020, the global pharmaceutical industry spent roughly 190 billion U.S. dollars on research and development. Global pharmaceutical R&D expenditures have been increasing with each consecutive year since 2012 and are expected to keep growing: worldwide R&D spending is projected to reach over 210 billion U.S. dollars by 2024.

Patent expiration

Once the patent protection date of a branded drug expires, other pharmaceutical companies can take this opportunity to make cheaper versions of the original (a.k.a. generics). In 2019, about 46 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of prescription drug revenue was at risk due to patent expiration worldwide. In that same year, some 409 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of revenue was generated through branded prescription medication in the U.S., while an estimated total of around 102 billion U.S. dollars was earned through branded and unbranded generics.