Pharm Exec’s latest annual listing of the top biopharmaceutical players—now in its 16th year—looks placid on the surface. But a restive marketplace and important transitions taking place in the larger business model of healthcare augers poorly for those inclined to read our numbers as a successful adjustment to the world as it is—because it’s a sure bet that world is going to be different.
Though the
companies represented in the top 50 of global sales leaders have remained
remarkably stable over time, their relative positioning within the list
continues to shift. This reflects the importance that product launches and
innovative campaigns to grow existing medications at every stage of the product
life cycle now play in building a sales advantage against truly brutal levels
of competition. It helps explain why Pfizer resumes its position this year as
the industry’s prescription sales leader, displacing Novartis in the No. 1
ranking by widening its therapeutic franchise in vaccines—a segment that
Novartis recently abandoned—with a strong performance for its multi-indication
pneumoccocal preventive, Prevnar 13.