Top pharmaceutical R&D projects based on net present value May 2021

Eli Lilly’s Tirzepatide was the most valuable research and development project in the pharmaceutical industry worldwide, based on its net present value (NPV) of over 22 billion U.S. dollars, as of May 2021.

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 up to 11 billion U.S. dollars that year.

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 21.7 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of revenue in its U.S. American submarket, and some 8.4 billion in emerging markets.