The financial performances of 15 leading global pharma companies remained under pressure during the year ended December 2015 due to patent expiries, cost cutting measures by several governments, adverse exchange rates, low returns from R&D investments, pricing pressure and competition. The aggregate net revenue of these companies remained stagnant at US$ 501 billion during the year and their operating profit before interest, taxation and adjustments improved only by 4.5 per cent to $138 billion from $132 billion in the previous year.
The aggregate revenues of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, consumer healthcare, diagnostic, medical devices and animal health of 15 global pharmaceutical companies improved slightly to $501 billion during 2015. Out of this, the sales of pharmaceutical & vaccine increased by 0.7 per cent to $435 billion from $432 billion. Novartis remained on top with pharma sales of $49,414 million followed by Pfizer $48,851 million and Sanofi of $37,739 million during 2015. The ranking of first five entities remained same which also includes Roche at fourth place and Merck at fifth. Gilead Sciences climbed to sixth place from ninth place in the previous year. However, ranking of Teva Pharma declined to 12th place from earlier 10th place as its pharma sales declined to $19,652 million from 20,272 million.
Novartis pharma sales declined by 5.3 per cent, Pfizer's by 1.5 per cent and Sanofi's by 2 per cent respectively. The pharma sales of Merck, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co were under pressure and declined in the range of 2 per cent to 9 per cent during 2015. Gilead Science and AbbVie registered double digit sales growth of 31.4 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively to $32,151 million and $22,819 million. Amgen and Novo Nordisk put up satisfactory growth of 8 and 9 per cent and there pharma sales reached at $20,944 million and $15,800 million. Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co managed small growth of 1.6 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.
The pharmaceutical and vaccines sales in US of 15 companies increased by 8.6 per cent to $208 billion from $192 billion in the previous year. Pfizer remained on top in US with pharmaceutical sales of $21,704 million as against $19,073 million, followed by Gilead Sciences sales of $21,200 million, Johnson $18,333 million, Novartis $18,079 million and Roche 17,774 million. AbbVie registered gain of 25.6 per cent in US sales and its US sales increased to $13,521 million Similarly, Novo Nordisk also achieved US sales growth of 18.2 per cent to $8,324 million. Novartis and AstraZeneca received setback in US and their pharmaceutical sales in US declined by 3.8 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively. GSK's US pharma sales increased by 6.9 per cent and that of Sanofi by 4.8 per cent.
The 95 blockbuster products, with sales above $1 billion, registered growth of 5.1 per cent in sales during 2015 to $253 billion as against $240 billion in the previous year. The sales of 42 blockbuster products declined during 2015 due to competition. Total 10 new products entered the blockbuster list during 2015 which includes Eliquis (Bristol-Myers), Viekira (AbbVie), Hepatitis C franchise (Bristol-Myers), Perjeta (Roche), Invokana/Invokamet (J&J), Cubicin (Merck), Triumeq (GSK), Renagel/Renvela (Sanofi) and Plumiiicort (AstraZeneca).
The loss of exclusivity and competition impacted sales of several products during 2015 and 13 blockbuster product in the list of 2014 lost blockbuster status which includes Norvasac (Pfizer), Avodart (GSK), Risperdal Consta (J&J), Zyprexa (Eli Lilly), Singulair (Merck), Flixotide/Flovent (GSK), Zyvox (Pfizer), Nasonex (Merck), Celebrex (Pfizer), Abilify (Bristol-Myers), Exelon/Exelon Patch (Novartis), Olysio/Sovriad (J&J), Pegasys (Roche),
AbbVie's Humira for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis maintained its top position with sales of $14,012 million as compared to $12,543 million in the previous year, a growth of 11.7 per cent. Gilead Sciences' Harvoni, an antiviral product, has climbed to second spot with sales of $13,864 million as against $2,127 million only. The third largest product of Roche's MabThera/Rituxan, oncology drug, went up sharply by 25.5 per cent to $7,108 million from $5,662 million. Sanofi's Lantus, for treatment of diabetes, maintained its fourth largest product rank with lower sales of $6,981 million as against $7,711 million. Similarly, fifth largest product Avastin of Roche for oncology treatment registered growth of 4 per cent to $6,744 million during 2015.
The R&D expenditure of 15 companies increased only by 1.7 per cent to $85,379 million during 2015 from $83,944 million in the previous year. The R&D expenditure of Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi, GSK, Amgen and Novo Nordisk declined during 2015. J&J, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers, Eli Lilly & Co, AbbVie, Gilead Sciences and Teva Pharmaceuticals stepped up their R&D expenditure during 2015. Novartis R&D expenditure declined by 1.7 per cent to $8,935 million from $9,086 million and that of Pfizer's declined by 8.4 per cent to $7,690 million from $8,393 million. Merck's R&D spending declined by 6.6 per cent.
The total marketing and selling (including administrative) expenditure of 15 companies declined by 3.6 per cent to $143 billion from $149 billion in the previous year. Novartis' marketing and selling expenditure declined to $14,247 million from $14,993 million and that of Merck to $10,932 million from $12,619 million. AstraZeneca reduced its expenditure to $11,112 million from $13,000 million. The interest burden of these companies increased sharply by 51 per cent to $10 billion from $6.7 billion. However, tax provision declined by 6.3 per cent to $23,962 million from $25,585 million. The profit after tax provision but before adjustments improved only by 4.2 per cent to $104 billion from $100 billion in the previous year.
The profit before adjustment of Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, J&J, Bristol-Myers, Teva Pharma, Sanofi and Roche declined during 2015. Novartis' net profit before adjustments declined sharply 34.5 per cent to $7,028 million from $10,727 million and that of Pfizer declined by 14.9 per cent to $7,759 million from $9,119 million. Merck's net profit declined sharply to $4,459 million from $11,934 million mainly due to acquisition divestiture related costs, restructuring costs etc. in the previous year. The company has shown gain of $11.2 billion on the divestiture of consumer care business in 2014.
Gilead Sciences performed impressively and its net profit went up sharply by 50 per cent to $18,108 million from $12,101 million in the previous year. Similarly, the net profit of AstraZeneca zoomed by 129 per cent to $2,826 million from $1,235 million. AbbVie also registered strong growth in net profit of 190 per cent to $5,144 million as against $1,774 million in the previous year. GSK's net profit increased sharply due to higher other income which increased to $11,924 million from $481 million.
Considering the global changes in the market places, pharma companies adopted new strategies and business plan during 2015. Novartis acquired GlaxoSmithKline's oncology products. It merged OTC businesses into a joint venture company. Novartis sold vaccines business, excluding influenza segment, to GSK. The company sold its influenza vaccines business to CSL Ltd and animal health business to Eli Lilly. Similarly, Pfizer entered definitive merger agreement with Allergan plc, Ireland, for a total value of $160 billion in November 2015 and the transaction is expected to be completed in second half of 2016. These major changes will have impact on working and ranking of leading 15 pharma companies in the coming years.
Though the year 2015 was tough for the overall business, the outlook remained promising as the global population is growing and aging and medical needs remain high. The rising middle class in emerging markets may push demand for quality products through new information and digital technology. Despite stagnant R&D expenditure, these companies are focusing on new products and making strong product pipeline.
Final Tables for International 15 Pharma cos 2015