Beijing News (Reporter Kalah Wang) June 10, US Pharm Exec magazine published the 2023 Top 50 Global Pharmaceutical Companies list, with Pfizer at the top with $91.3 billion. Four Chinese companies made the list: Sino Biopharm, SPH, Hengrui Pharma, and CSPC.
The 2023 TOP50 Global Pharmaceutical Enterprises list is primarily ranked based on each pharmaceutical company's prescription drug sales revenue for the 2022 fiscal year. Focusing on prescription drug sales as a key indicator more directly reflects the overall strength of pharmaceutical enterprises. The list’s data is widely recognized by many healthcare companies and institutions, becoming an important benchmark for corporate report analysis and tender procurement. This year marks the 23rd time that *Pharmaceutical Executive* magazine from the U.S. has released the TOP50 Global Pharmaceutical Enterprises list. In 2019, Chinese pharmaceutical companies were listed for the first time, with Sino Biopharm ranking 42nd globally, leading among Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises.
In the 2023 rankings, among the four Chinese pharmaceutical companies, Sino Biopharm ranked 39th (40th last year), making the list for the fifth consecutive year and once again topping the list of Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises; followed by SPH, ranked 41st (same as last year's 41st); Hengrui Pharma ranked 43rd (32nd last year), and CSPC ranked 48th (43rd last year).
The list shows that the prescription drug sales of Sino Biopharm, SPH, Hengrui Pharma, and CSPC in 2022 were $4.463 billion, $4.043 billion, $4.01 billion, and $3.334 billion, respectively; their R&D investments in 2022 were $601 million, $261 million, $893 million, and $511 million, respectively.
Among the four Chinese pharmaceutical companies, each has three of the best-selling prescription drugs in 2022 on the list. The highest-selling drug for Sino Biopharm is Anlotinib Hydrochloride Capsules (brand name "Fukexi"), SPH’s top-selling prescription drug is Sodium Tanshinone IIA Sulfonate (brand name "Nuoxinkang"), Hengrui Pharma's is Camrelizumab (brand name "Aireka"), and CSPC's is Butylphthalide (brand name "NBP").
Sino Biopharm, which once again topped the list of Chinese pharmaceutical companies in this ranking, is entering the harvest period of its innovative achievements: In 2022, it received clinical approval for 23 new indications, involving 17 innovative drugs, with more than 50 innovative drugs currently in clinical and marketing application stages. Since 2023, several innovative drugs including Limaprost and Ebaggistim α (long-acting G-CSF) have been approved for marketing, and TQ-B3525 tablets (PI3Kδ/α dual inhibitors) among other innovative drugs have been submitted for marketing applications. In the next three years, it is expected that more than 10 innovative drugs will be marketed, and over 40 more innovative drugs in development are expected to be launched by 2030.
"Pharmaceutical Executive" analyzed that as the sales of COVID-19 products peak and then significantly decline, it is foreseeable that non-epidemic treatment trends, market drivers, macroeconomic, and geopolitical factors will once again become the focus of the industry. In the coming years, the rankings of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies may undergo significant changes. Competition in key areas such as the weight-loss drug sector represented by GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) receptor agonists, the RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine field, and the Alzheimer's disease drug sector could all influence the rankings of leading pharmaceutical companies in the future.
Proofread by Wang Xin