Most major pharmaceutical companies have reported results for 2016 during the last few weeks, providing the opportunity to update our industry statistics. For an industry that requires a long investment cycle, decisions made many years ago have consequences on current financial performance. Being able to look at performance over 20 years highlights how strategic decisions have panned out.
The global pharmaceutical market is estimated to have grown +5% to $816bn.
Growth was driven by biopharmaceuticals with sales of $197bn (+8%).
Pfizer has returned to the #1 ranked company, both globally and in the US.
Lipitor remains the best ever selling drug, with cumulative sales of $152bn.
The top 15 companies invested $86bn in R&D, representing 20.5% of sales.
