10 of the best pharma companies to work for

The pharmaceutical industry is on the upswing and is poised to have a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2020 to 2027, according to projections from Grand View Research.

The industry’s resurgence is a good opportunity for employees in the sector, who frequently enjoy comfortable salaries.

To get a sense of which pharmaceutical companies in the sector were the best employers, we sifted through data on company reviews sites Glassdoor and Comparably, and other sources.

Here are the 10 companies that came in on top.

Get the full story from our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

And browse data on all the Pharma 50 companies here.

Read more
  • 0

10 of the best pharma companies to work for

The pharmaceutical industry is on the upswing and is poised to have a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2020 to 2027, according to projections from Grand View Research.

The industry’s resurgence is a good opportunity for employees in the sector, who frequently enjoy comfortable salaries.

To get a sense of which pharmaceutical companies in the sector were the best employers, we sifted through data on company reviews sites Glassdoor and Comparably, and other sources.

Below are the 10 companies that came in on top. (And browse data on all the Pharma 50 companies here.)

1. Sage Therapeutics

Glassdoor rating: 4.4/5 83% would recommend to a friend

Pros: Workers at Sage Therapeutics applauded the company’s work-life balance and culture. Just under three-quarters (74%) had a positive business outlook for the firm. One recent reviewer found meaning in “doing the toughest job in the world by developing CNS drugs.” The company’s brain health p…

Read more
  • 0

Pharma’s top 20 R&D spenders in 2020

[Lab image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay]The past year has been an unprecedented time for the pharmaceutical industry.

On the one hand, the pandemic resulted in substantial delays to clinical trials while also forcing sponsors to rethink clinical trial design to protect participants. But on the other hand, the pandemic underscored the importance of the pharma industry in society. 

While the pandemic certainly was a driver for substantial R&D spending in the industry in 2020, a significant expense for many companies last year was licensing fees and other acquisition costs. That trend is not just apparent for Incyte, which tops this list, but also for several other companies in this ranking of 20 firms, which are ranked below based on the percent of revenue they invest in R&D. (To find out the top 50 pharma companies, check out our recently published ranking here.)

Get the full picture from our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development. 

Read more
  • 0

Pharma’s top 20 R&D spenders in 2020

[Lab image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay]

The past year has been an unprecedented time for the pharmaceutical industry.

On the one hand, the pandemic resulted in substantial delays to clinical trials while also forcing sponsors to rethink clinical trial design to protect participants. But on the other hand, the pandemic underscored the importance of the pharma industry in society. 

While the pandemic certainly was a driver for substantial R&D spending in the industry in 2020, a significant expense for many companies last year was licensing fees and other acquisition costs. That trend is not just apparent for Incyte, which tops this list, but also for several other companies in this ranking of 20 firms, which are ranked below based on the percent of revenue they invest in R&D. (To find out the top 50 pharma companies, check out our recently published ranking here.)

Read more

  • 0

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies also overcame COVID-19-related clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles, driving unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

One of the most notable achievements involved the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, according to analyst Mani Foroohar at SVB Leerink.

Other achievements, according to Foroohar, includ…

Read more
  • 0

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from our sister publication Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies last year overcame clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles to drive unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

Get the full story on our sister site Drug Discovery & Development. 

Read more
  • 0

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from our sister publication Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies last year overcame clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles to drive unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

Get the full story on our sister site Drug Discovery & Development. 

Read more
  • 0

Pharma 50: Here’s how the world’s largest pharma companies are doing

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead.

That’s one of the big takeaways from our sister publication Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest pharma companies in the world. (Browse data on all 50 companies here.)

Overall, the 50 largest pharma companies brought in $851 billion in sales in 2020. Pharma companies last year overcame clinical trial disruption and staffing hurdles to drive unprecedented R&D advances to introduce novel vaccines and therapies to battle the pandemic. The resulting shift in public perception could benefit the industry for years to come.

Get the full story on our sister site Drug Discovery & Development. 

Read more
  • 0

Novartis shares dip after announcing disappointing Q4 results

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) posted fourth-quarter results today that trailed the consensus forecast.

The Basel, Switzerland–based company reported a $2.1 billion net income, an 86% increase in Q4 2019. Earnings per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were $1.34 per share on revenue of $12.8 billion. 

Analysts had anticipated earnings of $1.36 per share. 

Still, there is room for optimism. 

In an earnings call, Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan said the company had achieved “solid operational performance over the past three years,” after revamping its strategy in 2018. Net sales from 2017 to 2020 have grown 5% annually while its Innovative Medicines division achieved a 35% growth rate in 2020. 

“We have a leading pipeline across 10 therapeutic areas [and], four advanced therapy platforms,” Narasimhan added. 

Novartis has enacted a series of cost-savings measures that has enabled the company to save $2 billion in cost over the past three years. T…

Read more
  • 0

3 notable types of innovative drugs from 2020

Chemical structure of the COVID-19 therapy remdesivir. Image is from Wikipedia.

Last year, FDA approved 53 drugs, leading the industry to describe 2020 as “a strong year for new drug therapy.”

There are several drugs that stand out, according to Todd Wills, the co-author of a study that analyzes how innovative drugs are based on their structure.

The drugs that follow are examples of notable innovative therapies.

[Related: Here’s what molecular shape can tell you about pharma innovation]

1. COVID-19 therapies

One of the prominent drugs that stands out as structurally novel is remdesivir from Gilead Sciences (NSDQ:GILD). The first COVID-19 treatment to win FDA approval, remdesivir (Veklury), was first developed as an Ebola treatment. But the broad-spectrum antiviral also showed promise against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Gilead recently announced that sales of remdesivir beat …

Read more
  • 0

Siemens, Novartis team up on MS drug development

Siemens Healthineers (ETR:SHL)  and Novartis (NYSE:NVS) have agreed to jointly design, develop and commercialize diagnostic tests for therapeutic products across Novartis’ therapeutic pipeline, the companies announced today.

The first project will be a serum neurofilament light chain (NfL) immunoassay for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurological diseases.

NfL is a highly specific biomarker for nerve cell injury measured in cerebral spinal fluid and blood. Blood NfL levels have been reported to change in a variety of serious neurological conditions, including MS, according to a 2018 study published in Nature.

This collaboration will use Siemens Healthineers’ expertise in the development of clinical diagnostic tests that can run on its ADVIA Centaur and Atellica immunoassay platforms, designed for use in hospitals, reference laboratories, and specialty laboratories. Siemens Healthineers will also be global distributor of the immunoassay…

Read more
  • 0

Cala cites positive data in Trio tremor trial

(Image courtesy of Cala Health)

Bioelectronic company Cala Health released positive data from its ongoing PROSPECT trial demonstrating that a majority of patients using its  FDA-cleared Cala Trio device reported a reduction in hand tremors.

The study — published in Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements — enrolled 263 patients with essential tremor across 26 sites. Patients wore the Trio on their wrist and used the therapy twice daily, initiating more than 21,000 stimulation sessions. According to Cala, the study met both its co-primary and secondary endpoints with 62% and 68% of severe or moderate patients seeing improvements in their tremors.

“The PROSPECT study publication confirms that Cala Trio therapy is a safe and effective treatment option and, most importantly, shows the improved quality of life for these ET patients,” said Cala Health CEO Renee Ryan in a news release. “These findings,…

Read more
  • 0