Pharmaceutical companies belong to the most powerful businesses in the world. After all, they are developing and making the medicine that cure or treat the many illnesses and disorders millions of people are suffering from. While there are many pharmaceutical companies out there, it’s the biggest of them, known as Big Pharma, that really make the difference when it comes to researching, developing, and distributing the most important drugs to people all over the world.
The following ranking lists the top 10 largest pharma companies in the world by revenue. All these companies have sales of well over billions of dollars from a variety of different fields of medicine.
Note: The Top 10 pharma companies ranking only counts the revenue a company made from pharmaceutical sales. Other business branches the company may be involved in, are not looked at here.
The 10 Largest Pharmaceutical Companies in the World 2021
1. Roche
2. Novartis
3. Merck & Co.
4. Pfizer
5. GlaxoSmithKline
6. AbbVie
7. Johnson & Johnson
8. Sanofi
9. Shanghai Pharmaceuticals
10. AstraZeneca
Top 10 Largest Pharma Companies in the World (at a glance)
(as of February 2021)
| The 10 Largest Pharma Companies in the World: |
|---|
| 1. ROCHE Pharma revenue: $49.9 billion |
| 2. NOVARTIS Pharma revenue: $48.7 billion |
| 3. MERCK Pharma revenue: $48.0 billion |
| 4. PFIZER Pharma revenue: $47.6 billion |
| 5. GLAXOSMITHKLINE Pharma revenue: $46.7 billion |
| 6. ABBVIE Pharma revenue: $45.8 billion |
| 7. JOHNSON & JOHNSON Pharma revenue: $45.6 billion |
| 8. SANOFI Pharma revenue: $36.0 billion |
| 9. SHANGHAI PHARMACEUTICALS Pharma revenue: $26.7 billion |
| 10. ASTRAZENECA Pharma revenue: $25.9 billion |
Only pharmaceutical sales are counted in the Top 10 largest pharma companies ranking. Sales in other branches of business are disregarded here.
