This issue features the 2021 edition of Contract Pharma’s Top Companies Report. This year’s Top 20 Pharma and Biopharma firms reported pharma revenues of nearly $620 billion based on 2020 sales—relatively flat compared to the year before, due to the impact of COVID-19.

Not surprisingly, COVID dominated the headlines during the year. In March 2020, companies such as Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb, among others, officially announced the postponement of clinical trials that were underway to focus on the coronavirus. According to the research of clinicaltrials.gov, around 2522 clinical trials were suspended, and 1099 trials got postponed between the months of January and May 2020.

In addition to the postponement of R&D projects, fewer hospital and doctor visits during the pandemic led to the reduced demand for pharmaceuticals that affected the growth of the market. However, the shift during the year away from traditional R&D endeavors to focus on finding a cure for the global pandemic helped offset any negative impact.

This culminated in perhaps the most significant news of the year when Pfizer’s work with BioNTech to develop and deliver the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine came to fruition in Dec. 2020. From the initial announcement that it was partnering with BioNTech to the day Pfizer received FDA’s EUA took just 269 days—an unprecedented pace of development. In addition to this remarkable achievement, many of the companies featured in the following pages have their own Covid success stories. This year’s coverage begins on page 24. We hope you enjoy!

Tim Wright, Editor
twright@rodmanmedia.com


2021 TOP PHARMA & BIOPHARMA CO’s

01. Roche   (prev.: 02)
02. Novartis   (prev.: 03)
03. Merck & Co.  (prev.: 05)
04. AbbVie   (prev.: 07)
05. Johnson & Johnson (prev.: 04)
06. BMS   (prev.: 10)
07. Pfizer   (prev.: 01)
08. Sanofi   (prev.: 06)
09. GSK   (prev.: 08)
10. Takeda   (prev.: 09)
11. AstraZeneca  (prev.: 11)
12. Amgen   (prev.: 12)
13. Gilead   (prev.: 13)
14. Lilly   (prev.: 14)
15. Novo Nordisk  (prev.: 16)
16. Boehringer-Ing  (prev.: 19)
17. Teva   (prev.: 17)
18. Bayer   (prev.: 15)
19. Biogen   (prev.: 21)
20. Astellas   (prev.: 22)