Graphic: Kathy Wong for Endpoints News

The End­points R&D 15: How many block­busters does $124B buy the biggest spenders in drug re­search? (Not enough)

Some big themes be­come ap­par­ent as you get in­to the de­tails on the world’s top 15 R&D play­ers, ranked by over­all spend­ing in 2021.

Bot­tom line, this new look in­cludes a $124 bil­lion to­tal for the End­points R&D 15, up $22 bil­lion from the 2018 num­bers. That’s a 22% jump in just three years, in­clud­ing a fast and fu­ri­ous as­sault on Covid-19, with dis­tinct­ly mixed re­sults. While many tried, on­ly one of these big play­ers — Pfiz­er — turned a his­toric op­por­tu­ni­ty in­to a ma­jor mon­ey earn­er with long-term po­ten­tial. Mer­ck, GSK with Vir, Eli Lil­ly, J&J and As­traZeneca, all made small­er — some­times tem­po­rary — ad­vances in vac­cines or ther­a­peu­tics. But the long-term po­ten­tial for the sec­ond-tier play­ers seems stunt­ed com­pared to what Pfiz­er achieved.

Endpoints News

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

Associate

Alexandria Real Estate Equities

San Diego, CA, USA