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. 

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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.)

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CureVac and GSK announce promising preclinical data for next-gen COVID-19 vaccine 

As CureVac (NSDQ:CVAC) awaits European authorization for its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, it is conducting preclinical research on a second-generation vaccine candidate known as CV2CoV, which it is developing with GSK. 

In a study involving rats, the new mRNA vaccine candidate yielded high levels of antigen and strong neutralizing antibody titers after the first vaccination. 

Tübingen, Germany–based CureVac also said the vaccine candidate led to high levels of antibodies against several variants of concern, including B.1.1.298, B.1.1.7 and B.1.351.

“To successfully fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the long term, we will need different vaccines, and we need to be able to respond effectively to emerging variants,” GSK Global Vaccines President Roger Connor said in a statement. 

CV2CoV uses a new mRNA platform than CureVac’s first COVID-19 vaccine candidate known as CVnCoV. The new platform intends to bolster intracellular mRNA stability and translation to y…

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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…

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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
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FDA OKs Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for younger adolescents

The FDA has authorized the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) for adolescents as young as 12. The agency had previously authorized the vaccine for people 16 and older in December 2020.

The FDA came to its decision after Pfizer demonstrated in a Phase 3 trial that the vaccine showed 100% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. The vaccine also had favorable reactogenicity in 12- to 15-year-olds in the study involving 2,260 participants.

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

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FDA OKs Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for younger adolescents

The FDA has authorized the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) for adolescents as young as 12. The agency had previously authorized the vaccine for people 16 and older in December 2020.

The FDA came to its decision after Pfizer demonstrated in a Phase 3 trial that the vaccine showed 100% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. The vaccine also had favorable reactogenicity in 12- to 15-year-olds in the study involving 2,260 participants.

“Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic,” wrote Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, MD, in prepared remarks. “Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations.”

An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Pr…

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Moderna shares positive data regarding COVID-19 vaccine boosters

Vials containing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. [Image from Wikipedia]

Initial data from a Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) Phase 2 trial found two versions of its COVID-19 vaccine increased neutralizing titers against SARS-CoV-2 and two variants in previously vaccinated clinical trial volunteers.

A third dose of the company’s existing mRNA-1273 appears to improve immune response against the B.1.351 variant that first emerged in South Africa. But a booster dose of mRNA-1273.351, which was developed based on the South African variant, led to higher titers against B.1.351. Both vaccines also appear to offer superior protection against P.1, the lineage first identified in Brazil.

Moderna announced that both boosters were generally well tolerated.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX) have a Phase 1/2/3 trial underway testing the use of a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine. The two companies have also plan…

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BREAKING: Biden administration calls for waiving IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced on Twitter that the Biden administration supports a COVID-19 vaccine IP waiver.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced this afternoon that the Biden administration supports waiving IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines.

“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Tai said in the statement.

Get the full story on our sister site Pharmaceutical Processing World. 

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BREAKING: Biden administration calls for waiving IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced on Twitter that the Biden administration supports a COVID-19 vaccine IP waiver.

Stocks of major COVID-19 vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer are down today after U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the Biden administration supports waiving IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines.

“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Tai said in the statement.

Tai said the U.S. will actively participate in World Trade Organization text-based negotiations to make the IP protections waiver happen, though she added that such discussions will take time given the complexity of the WTO.

Moderna (Nasdaq:MRNA) shares are down more than –6% to $162.76 apiece, and Pfizer shares are down more than –1% to $39.53 apiece on the news this afternoon.

Even a…

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