Top pharmaceutical R&D projects based on net present value June 2020

Vertex’s triple combination project was the most valuable research and development project in the pharmaceutical industry worldwide, based on its net present value (NPV) of almost eight billion U.S. dollars, as of June 2020.

Global R&D spending

In 2019, global pharmaceutical industry expenditures for research and development amounted to just under 186 billion U.S. dollars. Total global R&D expenditures have been increasing with each consecutive year since 2012, and will probably exceed 200 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. Some of 2019’s leading pharmaceutical companies, in terms of R&D spending, included Roche, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis. Top pharma companies invested over eight billion U.S. dollars that year. In terms of prescription sales, however, Roche led the list with over 48 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of Rx sales.

Pfizer

Pfizer is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical corporations. Based in New York City, the American company generates a considerable amount of its revenue in the United States. In 2019, Pfizer earned nearly 24 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of revenue in its U.S. American submarket, and some 12.7 billion in emerging markets.