Global Pharmaceutical Innovation Index Unveiled: Eli Lilly Tops the List, Four Innovative Firms Debut Including BeiGene and Moderna

Pharmaceutical R&D involves high investment, long cycles, and significant risks. How can one assess a pharmaceutical company’s future potential? Innovative R&D and clinical translation capabilities may serve as key evaluation criteria.

Recently, the UK-based pharmaceutical consulting firm IDEA Pharma released the 2021 Pharmaceutical Innovation Index and Pharmaceutical Invention Index rankings. BeOne Medicines made its debut on the list, ranking 27th and 5th respectively, and was the only Chinese pharmaceutical company to be included. Hengrui Medicine, which appeared on the list in 2020, was excluded from the rankings this year.

IDEA Pharma’s Pharmaceutical Innovation Index primarily focuses on the total time required for a company to secure regulatory approval for a therapy. The Pharmaceutical Invention Index examines the breadth and depth of pharmaceutical companies’ R&D pipelines, as well as the novelty of the therapies under development within those pipelines.

Eli Lilly Returns to the Top of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index

Bristol-Myers Squibb Tops the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index

Eli Lilly

If you have an early-stage molecule, which company would be better positioned to leverage it? According to the latest assessment by IDEA Pharma, it is Eli Lilly and Company.

In the 2021 Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, Eli Lilly and Company rose four spots to claim the top position. This improvement in ranking was primarily driven by a large number of positive clinical results and robust financial performance. In 2020, Eli Lilly generated nearly $24.6 billion in revenue, representing a 10% year-over-year increase, with its diabetes drugs Jardiance and Trulicity being the largest revenue contributors. The company’s R&D investment in 2020 amounted to $6.08 billion, a 9% year-over-year increase; however, the ratio of R&D spending to sales decreased from 25.1% in 2019 to 24.8%.

This year, Eli Lilly’s most promising blockbuster drug may be the migraine treatment Emgalality, which has released key differentiated data, becoming the first in its class to demonstrate a reduction in the total pain burden for patients with both episodic and chronic migraine.

Furthermore, Eli Lilly’s other major potential drug, the dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist tirzepatide, has demonstrated positive results in multiple Phase 3 clinical trials. Tirzepatide outperformed Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide across several metrics and is poised to succeed Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 agonist dulaglutide. Additionally, Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s disease antibody therapy, donanemab, met its primary endpoint in Phase 2 clinical trials.

Bristol-Myers Squibb

This year, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) topped the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index. This is largely attributed to BMS significantly expanding its product portfolio through the acquisition of Celgene. Through this acquisition, BMS gained ozanimod, a potential blockbuster drug for multiple sclerosis, which received FDA approval last year.

Moreover, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMS) 2020 financial results were impressive, with revenue reaching $42.5 billion, a 63% increase from the previous year. By product, Revlimid, Eliquis, and Opdivo contributed the most to revenue. In 2020, BMS invested $11.14 billion in R&D, an increase of $5 billion compared to 2019, accounting for 26% of sales. BMS also reported numerous clinical “victories” in 2020.

As BMS transforms its high-potential drug molecules into innovative medicines, IDEA Pharma expects its ranking on the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index to continue rising in the coming years.

Figure 1. New Drug Approvals: Top 30 vs. Non-Top 30, 2015–2019 (Source: IDEA Pharma)

Four Innovative Pharmaceutical Companies Make Their Debut on the List!

Only BeOne Medicines Among Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies

Notably, four innovative pharmaceutical companies were included in the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index for the first time, including Seagen (4th), Incyte (5th), Moderna (20th), and BeOne Medicines (27th).

SEAGEN

Seagen (Seattle Genetics) ranked fourth on its debut in the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index and 22nd in the Pharmaceutical Invention Index. The company delivered strong financial performance in 2020, with total revenue nearing $2.2 billion, a year-over-year increase of 137%. Seagen has three marketed oncology products: the antibody-drug conjugates Adcetris and Padcev, as well as Tukysa, a best-in-class TYK inhibitor recently approved for marketing. Additionally, Seagen has nine candidates in its pipeline, two of which are in late-stage clinical development.

INCYTE

Incyte made its debut on the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, ranking fifth. In 2020, Incyte’s total revenue increased by 24%, primarily driven by its blockbuster JAK inhibitor Jakafi, which generated nearly $2 billion in revenue in 2020 and continues to grow rapidly. In 2020, the FDA approved Incyte’s Monjuvi in combination with lenalidomide for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (r/r DLBCL) who are not eligible for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Pemazyre was approved for the treatment of patients with previously treated, unresectable locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with FGFR2 fusions or rearrangements.

Additionally, Incyte and Eli Lilly’s other JAK inhibitor, Olumiant, achieved positive Phase III results in patients with atopic dermatitis.

Moderna

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines have undergone rapid development. Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, has been approved for market launch, with sales projected to reach $14 billion in 2021. Moderna is also developing a candidate vaccine, mRNA-1273.351, targeting the B.1.351 variant of SARS-CoV-2, as well as a multivalent vaccine, mRNA-1273.21. Furthermore, Moderna is working on next-generation COVID-19 vaccines that remain stable under refrigerated conditions.

In addition to its COVID-19 vaccine development program, Moderna has advanced 14 mRNA vaccine candidates into clinical development. Among these, the cytomegalovirus (CMV) candidate vaccine mRNA-1647 is in Phase 2 clinical development, and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) candidate vaccine mRNA-1345 has yielded positive results in the interim analysis of its Phase 1 clinical trial. Moderna is also developing innovative mRNA vaccines against influenza and HIV, with clinical trials expected to commence this year.

BeOne Medicines

BeOne Medicines was included for the first time this year in the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index and the Pharmaceutical Invention Index, ranking 27th and 5th, respectively.

According to public information, BeOne Medicines’ total R&D investment in 2020 amounted to US$1.29 billion (approximately RMB 8.3 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 39.11%, significantly surpassing that of Hengrui Medicine. To date, BeOne Medicines has two self-developed innovative drugs on the market—tislelizumab and zanubrutinib—as well as four licensed-in products. In addition, BeOne Medicines has 35 early-stage clinical candidate drugs, including multiple anti-tumor agents with potential differentiated advantages targeting TIGIT, OX40, BCL-2, TIM-3, and HPK1, thereby broadly covering cutting-edge global drug targets and mechanisms of action. Among these, the TIGIT antibody is expected to enter pivotal clinical trials in 2021.

Conclusion

Figure 2. Top 31 of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index and Pharmaceutical Invention Index Rankings (Source: IDEA Pharma)

In the rankings for the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index and the Pharmaceutical Invention Index, it is evident that, in addition to multinational pharmaceutical corporations (MNCs), a number of innovative drug companies with lower revenues have also been included. Eli Lilly ranks first on the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, followed by Roche in second place. However, smaller companies appear further down the list, with Regeneron, Seagen, and Incyte breaking into the top five. Both Seagen and Incyte are new entrants to the ranking, while Regeneron has surged from 10th place to third.

Why have multiple innovative pharmaceutical companies made the list? Because this ranking considers not only current product sales performance but also the clinical research status of new molecular entities and biologics. In fact, smaller innovative pharmaceutical companies may be more innovative. Dr. Jiang He, Chairman of Chengdu Fuzhi Health, once stated that large companies often lack sufficient drive for original innovation, whereas smaller companies may focus exclusively or primarily on R&D innovation, as survival otherwise would be impossible. IDEA Pharma points out that smaller companies are now better equipped than ever to bring their products to patients without needing to collaborate with multinational corporations (MNCs).

Only by prioritizing value creation and differentiation can enterprises continue to advance, rather than resting on their past achievements. A cohort of innovative pharmaceutical companies in China is also growing rapidly, aspiring to forge a distinct path for innovation in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry.

Reference source: 2021 Innovation and Invention Index

Responsible Editor: Liuli

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the position of Yaozhi Network. Comments and supplementary information are welcome in the comment section. If reprinting, please be sure to cite the author and source.