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Global Biopharma R&D Productivity And Growth Ranking

Overall Decline In R&D Productivity Continued In 2019

 
• By Markus Thunecke and Erika Kuchen

An analysis of the R&D productivity of the world’s 30 largest public pharmaceutical companies reveals an overall drop in R&D productivity, but this should not hide the fact that some companies are still performing extremely well.

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The top companies in Catenion’s annual survey have traditionally been emerging and mid-size players rather than big pharma. The same is true in 2019 as 6/10 qualify as mid-sized in the R&D ranking and 7/10 in the company ranking (that includes historical and forecast growth in sales, profit and market cap). Emerging mid-size pharma company Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (a first-time entrant) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. top the company performance ranking, but only Regeneron is in the top 10 in the R&D ranking (#8, Alexion #13). Both companies are now enjoying the fruits of their strong R&D from previous years, at the same time both are struggling to replenish their pipelines with high value assets.

Alexion is feeling the heat as activist investor Elliott Management has a different view of the outlook than management, and...

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