CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Drops Off 2024 Global Top 50 Pharma Ranking Amid Strategic Transition
Johnson & Johnson
Medical Device R&D and Manufacturer
Recently, *PharmExec*, a U.S.-based magazine for pharmaceutical executives, released the 2024 TOP50 Global Pharmaceutical Companies list. The data is sourced from EvaluatePharma, a global pharmaceutical market research institution. This list includes the prescription drug sales revenue, annual R&D investment, and core product revenue of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies over the past year. This marks the 24th release of the list.
Pfizer Falls from the Top Spot
Compared with the rankings in the past two years, Pfizer has seen significant changes, ending its two-year "dominant" position. Its global ranking dropped from first to sixth place. The direct reason for this decline is the cliff-like drop in revenue related to COVID-19 products. The revenue of its COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty and treatment drug Paxlovid in 2023 plummeted to $11.22 billion and $1.279 billion, respectively, marking a decrease of 70% and 92%. Once, Pfizer became the world's first "super pharmaceutical company" with annual revenue exceeding $100 billion thanks to these two products. Now, the dividends brought by the COVID-19 pandemic have gradually disappeared.
At the top of the list this time is Johnson & Johnson, which stands out with an income of 53.463 billion U.S. dollars. Currently, Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical business mainly focuses on areas such as oncology, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular and metabolic fields. In 2023, Johnson & Johnson's oncology business grew strongly, mainly driven by products such as Daratumumab, Apalutamide, and Ibrutinib. Among them, Daratumumab's sales performance reached 9.744 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, just a step away from entering the "10-billion-dollar club." In the field of autoimmune diseases, major products such as Ustekinumab, Infliximab, Guselkumab, and Golimumab also jointly promoted the growth of Johnson & Johnson’s performance. Among them, Ustekinumab’s sales exceeded the 10-billion-dollar mark for the first time in 2023, reaching 10.858 billion U.S. dollars.
Moreover, Novartis, Merck, and Roche each advanced one position, ranking third, fourth, and fifth respectively, while AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline remained unchanged.
Notably, benefiting from the "highly sought-after" status of GLP-1 receptor agonists in the pharmaceutical industry in recent years, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, as pharmaceutical companies holding star GLP-1 blockbuster products, naturally boast impressive sales performance. In this ranking, their global positions have risen to 11th and 13th respectively. Specifically, semaglutide contributed 145.811 billion Danish kroner (approximately $20.9824 billion at the latest exchange rate) to Novo Nordisk’s revenue in 2023, officially entering the "20-billion-dollar blockbuster club." It ranked second on last year's list of the world's top 10 best-selling drugs, only behind the newly crowned "blockbuster drug king" Keytruda, which generated $25.011 billion in sales. Industry insiders boldly predict that, given its current growth momentum, semaglutide is highly likely to surpass Keytruda in 2024 to claim the "drug king" title. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly's tirzepatide achieved annual sales of $5.339 billion in 2023. Driven by strong demand in the obesity market, its sales outlook for 2024 may further expand.
Four Chinese pharmaceutical companies listed
Notably, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are still present on this list, with four companies ranked: Yunnan Baiyao at 33rd, China Biologic Products at 38th, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals at 42nd, and Hengrui Medicine at 48th.
Among them, Yunnan Baiyao returned to the list after two years with prescription drug sales revenue of $5.519 billion. Its annual report data shows that in 2023, Yunnan Baiyao achieved operating income of 39.111 billion yuan; net profit attributable to shareholders was 4.094 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.41%; and the net profit attributable to shareholders after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 3.764 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.45%, setting a new high for the same period in history.
China Biologic Products advanced one place to reach No. 38 due to its continuous growth momentum. According to the company, it has entered a period of intensive harvest for innovative products. It is expected that multiple innovative products will be approved for marketing in 2024. By 2025, the number of innovative products is expected to reach 20, and nearly half of the company's revenue will come from these innovative products.
In this year's ranking, the positions of Shanghai Pharmaceuticals and Hengrui Pharmaceuticals both dropped. Specifically, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals fell by one place. According to Shanghai Pharmaceuticals' annual report, in 2023, the company achieved an annual industrial sales revenue of over 100 million yuan for 48 products, unchanged from last year. The sales revenue of 60 key products reached 14.94 billion yuan, showing a slight year-on-year decline.
The company with the largest drop in ranking is Hengrui Medicine, which has not experienced a ranking decline for the first time. In the 2023 list, Hengrui Medicine fell from 32nd place in 2022 to 43rd place in 2023, and then continued to drop to 48th place this year. However, it should be noted that after experiencing the pain of centralized procurement, Hengrui Medicine focused on innovative drugs, and the products in this field have become the mainstay driving its long-term development. According to the earnings report, Hengrui Medicine's revenue from innovative drugs reached 10.637 billion yuan (including tax, excluding external licensing revenue) in 2023, accounting for 46.6% of total revenue. Despite facing impacts such as changes in the external environment, product price reductions, and difficulties in market access, it still achieved a year-on-year growth of 22.1%.
Notably, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, which was on the list last year, failed to make the cut this year.
Attachment: TOP50 Global Pharmaceutical Enterprises in 2024
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