[Image Sergey Nivens/Adobe Stock]
In the Aesopian fable, the tortoise’s steady focus and persistence overcomes the hare’s bursts of speed. 2023 saw a similar shift in the pharma sector. While Pfizer, thanks to blockbuster COVID vaccine sales, rocketed to unprecedented heights in 2022 surpassing $100 billion in revenue, its fortunes reversed in 2023. As COVID product demand plummeted, Pfizer’s revenue nosedived to $58.5 billion, even resulting in a quarterly loss in Q3. Conversely, Merck’s consistent, diversified approach propelled it past Pfizer to become the Big Pharma leader in 2023, with a revenue climb to $60.115 billion, making it the top Big Pharma of 2023 — by a hair. While Merck’s revenue was $60.1 billion, Pfizer’s was only $1.6 billion behind.
This article will analyze the current top five Big Pharma firms, analyzing their successes and…