Markets

The World’s 50 Largest Pharmaceutical Companies

Published

3 months ago

January 25, 2024

Pranav Gavali

Featured Creator

Article/Editing:

Dorothy Neufeld

The World's Largest Pharmaceutical Companies by Market Capitalization

The World’s 50 Largest Pharmaceutical Companies

Globally, big pharma revenues have grown by more than half a trillion dollars since 2012, driven by an aging global population.

American drugmakers make up the greatest market share worldwide by far, supported by high prices in a less regulated market. Yet with 190 drug patents expiring in the next decade, many companies face steep revenue losses at the hands of generic competitors.

This graphic, from Pranav Gavali, shows the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Ranked: The Top 50 Pharmaceutical Giants

Together, the 50 biggest drugmakers make up a combined $4.7 trillion in market capitalization.

With a market cap of over $578 billion, American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is the world’s most valuable, known for diabetes medications and its newly-launched weight-loss drug. The average price of insulin in the U.S. is more than five times higher than other countries.

Ranking	Name	Symbol	Market Cap Oct 16 2023	Country
1	Eli Lilly	LLY	$578.3B	🇺🇸 U.S.
2	Novo Nordisk	NVO	$452.8B	🇩🇰 Denmark
3	Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	$377.7B	🇺🇸 U.S.
4	Merck	MRK	$263.9B	🇺🇸 U.S.
5	AbbVie	ABBV	$261.2B	🇺🇸 U.S.
6	Roche	ROG.SW	$222.4B	🇨🇭 Switzerland
7	AstraZeneca	AZN	$212.2B	🇬🇧 UK
8	Novartis	NVS	$201.1B	🇨🇭 Switzerland
9	Pfizer	PFE	$181.3B	🇺🇸 U.S.
10	Amgen	AMGN	$152.0B	🇺🇸 U.S.
11	Sanofi	SNY	$138.5B	🇫🇷 France
12	Bristol-Myers Squibb	BMY	$118.0B	🇺🇸 U.S.
13	Gilead Sciences	GILD	$96.8B	🇺🇸 U.S.
14	Vertex Pharmaceuticals	VRTX	$95.8B	🇺🇸 U.S.
15	CVS Health	CVS	$91.9B	🇺🇸 U.S.
16	Regeneron Pharmaceuticals	REGN	$91.1B	🇺🇸 U.S.
17	Zoetis	ZTS	$80.3B	🇺🇸 U.S.
18	GlaxoSmithKline	GSK	$76.6B	🇬🇧 UK
19	CSL	CSL.AX	$73.3B	🇦🇺 Australia
20	Merck KGaA	MRK.DE	$67.8B	🇩🇪 Germany
21	Daiichi Sankyō	4568.T	$51.7B	🇯🇵 Japan
22	Chugai Pharmaceutical	4519.T	$50.8B	🇯🇵 Japan
23	Takeda Pharmaceutical	TAK	$47.2B	🇯🇵 Japan
24	Bayer	BAYZF	$45.1B	🇩🇪 Germany
25	Seagen	SGEN	$40.2B	🇺🇸 U.S.
26	Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine	600276.SS	$38.6B	🇨🇳 China
27	Biogen	BIIB	$38.0B	🇺🇸 U.S.
28	Moderna	MRNA	$37.4B	🇺🇸 U.S.
29	WuXi AppTec	2359.HK	$36.0B	🇨🇳 China
30	Lonza	LONN.SW	$34.2B	🇨🇭 Switzerland
31	Sun Pharmaceutical	SUNPHARMA.NS	$32.8B	🇮🇳 India
32	Argenx	ARGX	$29.9B	🇳🇱 Netherlands
33	West Pharmaceutical	WST	$28.4B	🇺🇸 U.S.
34	WuXi Biologics	WXXWY	$26.7B	🇨🇳 China
35	Horizon Therapeutics	HZNP	$26.6B	🇮🇪 Ireland
36	BioNTech	BNTX	$24.8B	🇩🇪 Germany
37	Astellas Pharma	4503.T	$22.9B	🇯🇵 Japan
38	Genmab	GMAB	$21.1B	🇩🇰 Denmark
39	Alnylam Pharmaceuticals	ALNY	$21.0B	🇺🇸 U.S.
40	ICON plc	ICLR	$20.3B	🇮🇪 Ireland
41	Walgreens Boots Alliance	WBA	$20.1B	🇺🇸 U.S.
42	BeiGene	BGNE	$19.5B	🇨🇳 China
43	Otsuka Holdings	4578.T	$18.4B	🇯🇵 Japan
44	LabCorp	LH	$17.9B	🇺🇸 U.S.
45	Royalty Pharma	RPRX	$16.8B	🇬🇧 UK
46	BioMarin Pharmaceutical	BMRN	$16.2B	🇺🇸 U.S.
47	Baxter	BAX	$16.1B	🇺🇸 U.S.
48	UCB	UCB.VI	$16.0B	🇧🇪 Belgium
49	Eisai	4523.T	$15.9B	🇯🇵 Japan
50	Celltrion	068270.KS	$15.0B	🇰🇷 South Korea

Ranking in second is Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, with a $453 billion market cap.

The 100-year old company began by making insulin, a newly discovered drug in the 1920s. Like Eli Lilly, it recently launched a weight-loss drug, Ozempic, originally used to treat diabetes. As drug sales soared, the company briefly became the most valuable in Europe.

According to BMO, the weight-loss drug market will be worth $100 billion by 2035.

As a major drug exporter to the U.S., Japan is home to the largest pharma companies in Asia. In fact, it is the third-largest pharmaceutical market in the world. A number of large U.S. pharma companies including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Bristol Myers Squibb have subsidiaries in the country.

Of the top 50 pharma companies, U.S. drugmakers make up 56% of global market capitalization, followed by Europe at 34%, and Asia with a 10% market share.

Facing a Cliff

With scores of patents set to expire by 2030, big pharma companies could see a $200 billion loss in revenues due to fierce competition from generics.

As a result, the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies globally are at risk of losing 46% of revenues. Adding to this, the U.S. government announced they may remove patent protection if certain drugs are too expensive in efforts to clamp down on high drug prices.

This may come as a benefit to consumers, especially in America. With some of the highest prescription costs in the world, they are as much as three times more expensive than other countries, averaging $1,432 per person in 2021.

The median price for newly-launched drugs in the U.S. in 2022 was over $200,000 per year—up from $2,115 in 2008.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Economy

Economic Growth Forecasts for G7 and BRICS Countries in 2024

The IMF has released its economic growth forecasts for 2024. How do the G7 and BRICS countries compare?

Published

3 days ago

April 24, 2024

Niccolo Conte

Faded horizontal bar chart visualization of G7 and BRICS countries' real GDP growth forecasts for 2024.

G7 & BRICS Real GDP Growth Forecasts for 2024

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) has released its real gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts for 2024, and while global growth is projected to stay steady at 3.2%, various major nations are seeing declining forecasts.

This chart visualizes the 2024 real GDP growth forecasts using data from the IMF’s 2024 World Economic Outlook for G7 and BRICS member nations along with Saudi Arabia, which is still considering an invitation to join the bloc.

Get the Key Insights of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook

Want a visual breakdown of the insights from the IMF’s 2024 World Economic Outlook report?

This visual is part of a special dispatch of the key takeaways exclusively for VC+ members.

Get the full dispatch of charts by signing up to VC+.

Mixed Economic Growth Prospects for Major Nations in 2024

Economic growth projections by the IMF for major nations are mixed, with the majority of G7 and BRICS countries forecasted to have slower growth in 2024 compared to 2023.

Only three BRICS-invited or member countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and South Africa, have higher projected real GDP growth rates in 2024 than last year.

Group	Country	Real GDP Growth (2023)	Real GDP Growth (2024P)
G7	🇺🇸 U.S.	2.5%	2.7%
G7	🇨🇦 Canada	1.1%	1.2%
G7	🇯🇵 Japan	1.9%	0.9%
G7	🇫🇷 France	0.9%	0.7%
G7	🇮🇹 Italy	0.9%	0.7%
G7	🇬🇧 UK	0.1%	0.5%
G7	🇩🇪 Germany	-0.3%	0.2%
BRICS	🇮🇳 India	7.8%	6.8%
BRICS	🇨🇳 China	5.2%	4.6%
BRICS	🇦🇪 UAE	3.4%	3.5%
BRICS	🇮🇷 Iran	4.7%	3.3%
BRICS	🇷🇺 Russia	3.6%	3.2%
BRICS	🇪🇬 Egypt	3.8%	3.0%
BRICS-invited	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	-0.8%	2.6%
BRICS	🇧🇷 Brazil	2.9%	2.2%
BRICS	🇿🇦 South Africa	0.6%	0.9%
BRICS	🇪🇹 Ethiopia	7.2%	6.2%
	🌍 World	3.2%	3.2%

China and India are forecasted to maintain relatively high growth rates in 2024 at 4.6% and 6.8% respectively, but compared to the previous year, China is growing 0.6 percentage points slower while India is an entire percentage point slower.

On the other hand, four G7 nations are set to grow faster than last year, which includes Germany making its comeback from its negative real GDP growth of -0.3% in 2023.

Faster Growth for BRICS than G7 Nations

Despite mostly lower growth forecasts in 2024 compared to 2023, BRICS nations still have a significantly higher average growth forecast at 3.6% compared to the G7 average of 1%.

While the G7 countries’ combined GDP is around $15 trillion greater than the BRICS nations, with continued higher growth rates and the potential to add more members, BRICS looks likely to overtake the G7 in economic size within two decades.

BRICS Expansion Stutters Before October 2024 Summit

BRICS’ recent expansion has stuttered slightly, as Argentina’s newly-elected president Javier Milei declined its invitation and Saudi Arabia clarified that the country is still considering its invitation and has not joined BRICS yet.

Even with these initial growing pains, South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told reporters in February that 34 different countries have submitted applications to join the growing BRICS bloc.

Any changes to the group are likely to be announced leading up to or at the 2024 BRICS summit which takes place October 22-24 in Kazan, Russia.