Επισκεφθείτε τον ιστότοπο του βιβλίου «ΚΕΡΔΟΦΟΡΟ ΦΑΡΜΑΚΕΙΟ» Αρχική - Περιεχόμενα - Κριτικές αναγνωστών - Ο συγγραφέας - Αγορά του βιβλίου - Επικοινωνία

19 Σεπτεμβρίου 2020

Ten biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world in 2020


In a world dominated by a pandemic, you might wonder how its affecting the 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world in 2020. The pharmaceutical industry is a trillion dollar industry globally, achieving the milestone for the first time in 2014, and the biggest companies are getting a huge piece of the pie.

The pharma industry can vary significantly from country to country, based on the laws regulating it. After all, there is a huge question of balancing the importance of saving lives of people with profits and the money needed for research and development to develop such drugs. This is why many countries across the world regulate the maximum price at which a drug can be sold, to allow the companies high margins and profits, while enabling more people to be able to purchase the drug as well.

Unsurprisingly, the United States is not one of those countries. In the US, there are no regulations on raising prices, which is why you have people like Martin Shkreli, who jacked the price of an important drug by 700% and cause an outrage, even though the outrage was purely on a moral level, as legally, his opponents did not have a leg to stand on. He is the poster boy of Big Pharma, a term coined for the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the US who are said to do anything, even if its immoral or illegal, to fill their coffers rather than actually focus on saving lives. They haven't paid over $2 billion in taxes in the US, and are able to fill the image of the typical capitalist US company.

While you might think that pharmaceutical companies have profited from the pandemic, that is actually not the case, at least in the short term. Because of lockdowns, supplies have been disrupted, and once any part of the supply chain is compromised, so is the entire operation. On the long term, on the other hand, there might be a lot to gain for these companies as well. These pharma companies are being given billions of dollars already by governments to develop a vaccine for Covid-19. Any company which makes the breakthrough first is looking at a huge windfall, while companies following it will also profit handsomely from the same.

To determine the biggest pharma companies in the world, we considered both their revenues and their net income, the two major metrics to determine the strength of a company. Many websites have got this wrong, for example, you will find that many websites rank Johnson & Johnson as the pharma company with the highest revenue with $82 billion. But Johnson & Johnson is a conglomerate, of which pharmaceuticals is just one segment. Hence, we have considered only its pharma revenue and net income, all of which has been gleaned from the annual reports of each company. They are still not as profitable as the tech industry though, which dominates the 10 most profitable companies in the world. So let's take a look at the biggest pharma companies likely to grow even more significantly if they develop the vaccine first, starting with number 10:

 

 

10. AstraZeneca

With revenues of over $23 billion and net income of around $1.2 billion, this Swedish English pharma company is one of the biggest players in the pharma industry and has a deal with the British government to roll out 30 million doses of the Covid 19 vaccine early next year, which is already in development.

9. Bristol-Myers Squibb

European and American countries dominate the list, and Bristol-Myers Squibb is an American company, which has revenue exceeding $26 billion while the net income is around $3.4 billion.

8. Sanofi

Sanofi is a French pharma giant which has a revenue of over $27 billion, but is known for its fluctuating profit, which was $2.8 billion consolidated in 2019.

7. Abbvie

Abbvie is one of the newest companies in the list having been founded in 2013 only, but has made over $33 billion in revenue and $7.9 billion in net income.

AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV)

More

6. GlaxoSmithKline

GSK is one of the biggest companies the world, and is also among the 100 most profitable companies in the world. It is a British company, but the majority of its revenue is derived from the US, and is listed in several countries, including the US, boasting revenue of $43.54 billion and operating profit of $6.8 billion.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK)

More

5. Johnson & Johnson

It may be in the news for all the wrong reasons, but its pharma sector alone produced over $42.2 billion, more than half of the total revenue of this giant conglomerate.

4. Merck & Co. Inc

Another US company makes our list of biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world in 2020, due to its revenue of $46 billion and net profit of over $10.1.

 

3. Novartis

Switzerland makes its entry now, as Novartis, one of the most recognized global names in pharma, has made its presence felt on a global level, with revenue of $47 billion and net income of $12.2 billion. Despite its profitability, hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey don’t believe Novartis is a great stock to buy. We track more than 800 hedge funds and only 21 of these hedge funds had a bullish position in Novartis at the end of June.

Hedge funds’ bullish Novartis positions stood at 30 at the end of March. This means at least 9 hedge funds sold their entire stake in Novartis during the second quarter. Billionaires Ken Fisher and Jim Simons‘ funds each had more than $700 million in NVS.

2. Roche

Two Swiss companies appear in quick succession, as Roche is one of only two pharma companies in the world which actually has revenues exceeding $50 billion, while its net income is $13.6 billion. Since Roche shares aren’t listed in any of the major US exchanges, we have no idea about hedge fund interest in this pharmaceutical giant.LininShutterstock.com

1. Pfizer

Topping the list of the 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world in 2020 is Pfizer, an American company, which has amazing revenues of $51 billion, and net income nearing $16 billion. It provides employment to over 88,000 people across the globe.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) recently dropped this #1 pharma stock from its index and replaced it by the faster growing Amgen (AMGN). This doesn’t mean that AMGN is a better stock to invest in than Pfizer. Pfizer was in the portfolios of 66 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, whereas only 51 hedge funds liked AMGN enough to buy the stock. So, hedge fund managers think PFE is a better stock to buy than AMGN. We should note that PFE isn’t among the top 10 hedge fund stocks though. Our calculations showed that top 10 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 41.4% in 2019 and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 10.1 percentage points. These stocks gained 33% in 2020 through the end of August and still beat the market by 23.2 percentage points.