This statistic depicts the top global pharmaceutical companies based on pharmaceutical revenue in 2021. In that year, Swiss corporation Novartis generated some 52 billion U.S. dollars of pharmaceutical revenue. Pfizer, however, came back to first place, especially due to record-breaking COVID-19 vaccine sales.
Top global pharmaceutical companies
The top pharmaceutical companies when based exclusively on revenue with pharmaceutical products are Pfizer, Roche, and AbbVie, as of 2021. The companies generated 81 billion U.S. dollars, 68 billion U.S. dollars, and 56 billion U.S. dollars, respectively, in that year. Swiss company Novartis has not maintained its top 3 ranking from previous years. Novartis is a multinational company based in Basel, Switzerland. The company was established in 1996 through the merger of Swiss pharmaceutical companies, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz Laboratories. One of Novartis' segment consists of over-the-counter drugs such as Excedrin. Excedrin garnered some 78 million U.S. dollars in revenue in the year ended mid-June 2019 in the United States. This is a drug normally marketed as a headache pain reliever and sold in the form of a tablet or caplet.
From the United Sates, Johnson & Johnson was one of the largest biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies as of 2021, generating some 52 billion U.S. dollars in total pharmaceuticals revenue. Johnson & Johnson’s revenue from the company’s top three drugs accounted for around a third of the company’s total pharmaceutical revenues in 2020. In 2020, the U.S. pharma industry spent over 72 billion U.S. dollars within the country on pharmaceutical research and development and nearly 19 billion U.S. dollars abroad.
Leading global pharmaceutical companies based on pharma revenue in 2021
(in billion U.S. dollars)
Compared to the orginal source we excluded Bayer from the top 10 list because its revenue included also a large part of non-pharma/non-health related revenues.
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PharmaBoardroom. (February 18, 2022). Leading global pharmaceutical companies based on pharma revenue in 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/281306/major-global-pharmaceutical-companies-based-on-pharma-revenue-2012/
PharmaBoardroom. "Leading global pharmaceutical companies based on pharma revenue in 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars)." Chart. February 18, 2022. Statista. Accessed May 26, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/281306/major-global-pharmaceutical-companies-based-on-pharma-revenue-2012/
PharmaBoardroom. (2022). Leading global pharmaceutical companies based on pharma revenue in 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars). Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: May 26, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/281306/major-global-pharmaceutical-companies-based-on-pharma-revenue-2012/
PharmaBoardroom. "Leading Global Pharmaceutical Companies Based on Pharma Revenue in 2021 (in Billion U.S. Dollars)." Statista, Statista Inc., 18 Feb 2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/281306/major-global-pharmaceutical-companies-based-on-pharma-revenue-2012/
PharmaBoardroom, Leading global pharmaceutical companies based on pharma revenue in 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars) Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/281306/major-global-pharmaceutical-companies-based-on-pharma-revenue-2012/ (last visited May 26, 2022)