The 15 top R&D spenders in the global biopharma business: 2016
Just about every player on this list has triggered a major overhaul of R&D in the past decade
Over the past nine years that I’ve been analyzing Big Pharma’s R&D numbers, there’s been some fluctuation in the top ten, but overall spending has remained fairly steady at roughly $70 billion a year.
Some big trends, though, emerge after you move beyond the top line number. Just about every player on this list has triggered a major overhaul of R&D in the past decade, shuttering facilities, laying off staffers, or at the very least chopping out core research areas and either narrowing their focus or adding new ones. (And it’s not over yet, as you can see from yesterday’s Merck reorganization story.) The turbulence has helped persuade a long list of top execs to leave the biggest companies and leap to the helm of biotech startups, which have been enriched by an IPO boom (now struggling) and a VC romp of historic proportions (not over yet). Cancer remains the Big Kahuna as new drugs offer dramatic breakthroughs, and some high drama, which is one reason why there is still lingering uncertainty over GSK’s decision to swap its late-stage and commercial assets for Novartis’s vaccines operation. Immuno-oncology in particularly is driving billions of dollars in new investments, and not just by Bristol-Myers and Merck.
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