This month’s feature article is the first publication of the 2017 global pharmaceutical industry statistics from which the global and US rankings of the top 15 drug companies are derived. Comparisons are made with historical data to show how different company strategies have evolved. In addition, an analysis of the evolution of biopharmaceuical drugs has been made, together with a key sub-set, namely drugs derived from antibody technology, which now represent 12% of the entire market. Two more drugs joined the $100bn club in 2017.