Top 10 Pharmaceutical Companies by Revenue and Market Cap in 2025 (October Edition)
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| Credit: fiercepharma.com |
- Drug Stock Rally Helps Push Dow and S&P 500 to Records — WSJ (Oct 2, 2025)
- Eli Lilly's (LLY) shares jumped 8.6% amid reports of a drug-pricing deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry (Oct 2, 2025)
Lilly—boosted by sales of its diabetes and obesity drugs Moujaro and Zepbound—projects its sales to fall between $58 billion and $61 billion. At the midpoint of the projection, it would be a 32% increase, matching the sales boom it saw last year. Meanwhile, Novo—which also has been powered by sales of its diabetes and obesity treatments—is projecting sales to increase by a range of between 16% and 24%.
Top 10 Pharmaceutical Companies by Revenue
1. Johnson & Johnson
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| For 2025, Johnson & Johnson projects overall sales growth of roughly 4% to $92 billion. Johnson & Johnson |
- 2024 revenue: US$88.8 billion (pharmaceutical segment, $57.07 billion and MedTech division, $32 billion)
- 2025 First-Quarter reported sales growth of 2.4% to $21.9 Billion
- 2025 Second-Quarter reported sales growth of 5.8% to $23.7 Billion (jnj.com)
- 2025 (9 months): $69.6B (Q1: $21.9B, Q2: $23.7B, Q3: $24.0B) (jnj.com)
- Upcoming earnings report on October 14, 2025.
- Headquarters: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Through these developments—and even more now in the wake of them—the company has remained focused on its innovative drug business. Thanks to new approvals and future label expansions, the company has projected that its innovative medicines business can deliver annual growth of 5% to 7% from 2025 to 2030.
Of J&J’s $88.8 billion in global sales last year, its innovative medicines group delivered annual sales of nearly $57 billion. Its medtech division, meanwhile, pulled down nearly $32 billion. Both groups delivered sales growth of 4% to 5% compared with 2023.
Related: The top 10 drugs losing US exclusivity in 2025
For 2025, J&J projects overall sales growth of roughly 4% to $92 billion. To get there, the company expects to fight “headwinds associated with U.S. biosimilar entries for Stelara,” CEO Joaquin Duato told analysts on an earnings call in January. California's Amgen launched the Stelara biosimilar onslaught at the start of the year, and, since then, several other copycats have entered the market. More are on the way, so J&J is bracing for sales of its megablockbuster immunology medicine to continue to decline. Last year, Stelara’s sales declined by 4.6% to about $10.4 billion.
In addition to the Stelara biosim pressure, the company is anticipating some challenges from a Medicare Part D redesign in the U.S. and macroeconomic factors in China, Duato informed analysts during the January earnings call.
On the flip side, J&J says it has 10 or more medicines that could generate more than $5 billion in peak-year sales. This list includes multiple myeloma drugs Talvey, Tecvayli and investigational oral medicine icotrokinra. Another 15 assets—or more—could generate between $1 billion and $5 billion at peak, including depression spray Spravato.
In all, J&J expects to deliver 70 new products or label expansions (or the associated regulatory filings for these expansions) by 2030, according to its Enterprise Business Review presentation (PDF):
“I cannot think of any other company that would be able to deliver growth through the first year of losing exclusivity of a multibillion-dollar product,” Duato said on January’s call. “We are able to achieve these results because of the diversification of our business, the strength of our commercial assets, as well as the breadth of our pipeline, with additional launches in 2025, including Tremfya in [inflammatory bowel disease], Rybrevant and Lazcluze in lung cancer, and Varipulse and the Dual Energy Thermocool Smarttouch SF catheter in electrophysiology.”
Related: Texas AG sues makers of Tylenol, claiming they hid alleged links to autism (ABC News 2025)
2. Roche
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Last year, Roche's sales grew 3% to about 60.5 billion
Swiss francs, including 46.2 billion Swiss francs from
the pharma division. trabantos/Getty Images |
- 2024 revenue: US$75.2 billion (60.5 billion Swiss francs, CHF)*
- 2025 First-Quarter reported sales growth of 6% to US$18.7 Billion (CHF 15.4 billion)
- 2025 H1 group sales: US$33 billion.
- 2025 (9 months): $52.8B (CHF 45.9B) (roche.com)
- Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
- Group sales grew by 7% at constant exchange rates (CER; 2% in CHF) in the first nine months, driven by high demand for our innovative medicines and diagnostics.
If one were to name 2024’s star pharmaceutical products beyond the GLP-1s, Roche’s eye injection Vabysmo would likely be on the list. First approved by the FDA in January 2022 as a competitor to Bayer and Regeneron’s Eylea, Vabysmo already reached 3.86 billion Swiss francs (about $4.5 billion) of sales in 2024.
The VEGFxAng-2 bispecific antibody became even more competitive last year by offering a more convenient single-dose prefilled syringe option.
The rise of Vabysmo pushed the checkpoint inhibitor Tecentriq off Roche’s top three medicines list by sales.
Then, a few months later, Roche said the closely watched Skyscraper-01 trial of its TIGIT antibody tiragolumab failed to show an overall survival benefit when combined with Tecentriq in first-line PD-L1-high non-small cell lung cancer, despite an earlier positive signal.
Given the importance of the indication, the trial failure pushed the entire TIGIT idea—once billed as the potential next big immune checkpoint target after PD-1/L1—ever closer to its graveyard. Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck & Co. and, most recently, BeiGene, have all ditched TIGIT, although Roche still has a few ongoing phase 3 trials that are fully enrolled.
Also in cancer immunotherapy, Roche last year struck a $1.5 billion deal to purchase its then-partner Poseida Therapeutics, giving the cell therapy field a much-needed injection of confidence. The deal brought to Roche an allogeneic cell therapy platform, which includes a gene editing tool that allows for the delivery of multiple CARs in a single step.The Poseida buy also strengthened Roche’s flourishing hematology portfolio. Its hemophilia drug Hemlibra grew sales by 12% at constant exchange rates, reaching 4.5 billion Swiss francs last year. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) antibody-drug conjugate Polivy crossed the blockbuster threshold with 1.1 billion Swiss francs in 2024. Its two CD19xCD3 bispecifics, Columvi and Lunsumio, are anticipated to receive an FDA decision and a phase 3 readout, respectively, in second-line DLBCL this year.
Roche also bought a portfolio of CDK inhibitors from China’s Regor Pharmaceuticals last year for $850 million upfront. What’s more, two important phase 3 trials of the company’s oral SERD, giredestrant, could read out this year.
3 . Merck
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| In 2024, Merck generated global sales of $64.2 billion, a 7% increase from the prior year. Merck & Co. |
- 2024 revenue: $64.2 billion
- 2025 First-Quarter reported sales growth of -2% (compared to the same period in 2024) to USD $15.5 Billion
- 2025 Second-Quarter reported sales: USD $15.8 Billion
- 2025 (9 months): $47.2B (est., H1: $31B, Q3 expected $16.2B)
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 206.3/64.2 = 3.21
- R&D Spending 2024: $17.9 billion
- Headquarters: Rahway, New Jersey
During its fourth-quarter earnings report in February 2025, Merck said it was halting Gardasil shipments to China as the company and its local distribution partner, Zhifei, had been experiencing lower-than-expected demand in the key market. The company further pulled its $11 billion long-term sales target for the HPV shot, its second-biggest product by revenue behind Keytruda.
All told, Gardasil sales fell 3% last year to $8.6 billion.
On the flip side, sales of Merck's megablockbuster checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda climbed 18% last year to $29.48 billion.
While Merck has long enjoyed the booming success of Keytruda, including securing a 40th U.S. indication last year, the drug's trajectory will eventually change. And it’s not just generics waiting around the corner: In a recent securities filing, Merck said it expects the U.S. government to select Keytruda for Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) "government price setting" in 2026. After a two-year process, the new negotiated prices for Medicare would take effect at the start of 2028.
“As a result, U.S. sales of Keytruda will decline after that time," the company explained in its annual report."
Merck halts Gardasil shipments to China, withdraws $11B sales target as demand nosedives. Besides the IRA process, Merck lists 2028 as the expiration of Keytruda’s “key patent protection.” Together, Keytruda and Gardasil were responsible for roughly 59% of Merck’s annual sales in 2024. With both products facing future uncertainties, Merck execs have been busy figuring out the company’s growth path for the years to come. On Merck’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Robert Davis said the company has been “very focused from a business development perspective, with nearly $40 billion invested in the last 3.5 years across really a diverse set of assets that have built out the pipeline.”
After Merck’s Acceleron buyout, one drug getting a significant amount of attention at the New Jersey drug giant is Winrevair. The pulmonary arterial hypertension therapy scored its initial FDA nod in 2024 and is carrying blockbuster expectations.
Going forward, business development deals worth up to $15 billion are in the company’s “sweet spot,” Davis added on the February conference call. The company is eyeing a range of investigational and commercial opportunities, he said.
In 2024, Merck generated global sales of $64.2 billion, a 7% increase from the prior year. The company has set a somewhat cautious tone for 2025, expecting its sales this year to land between $64.1 billion and $65.5 billion. Even at the high end of the range, the growth rate would be just 2%.
4. AstraZeneca
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| AstraZeneca’s stock price reached an all-time high last year. AstraZeneca |
- 2024 revenue: $54.1 billion
- 2025 First-Quarter Revenue: US$13.6B (up 10% from 1Q 2024)
- 2025 Second-Quarter Revenue: US$14.5B
- 2025 (9 months): $42.1B (est., H1: $28B, Q3 expected $14.75B)
- Headquarters: Cambridge, U.K.
By full-year numbers, AstraZeneca had one of the best 2024 among Big Pharma companies. Its 2024 revenue of $54.1 billion marked an impressive 18% increase year over year, fueled by the likes of SGLT2 inhibitor Farxiga, Sanofi-partnered respiratory syncytial virus prevention drug Beyfortus, blood cancer drug Calquence and Daiichi Sankyo-partnered antibody-drug conjugate Enhertu. The British drugmaker’s stock price even reached an all-time high last year.
AstraZeneca stole the show at the largest cancer conference (ASCO 2025). AstraZeneca had an impressive slate of top-level plenary talks geared toward using drugs earlier on for breast, gastric, and lung cancer survival.The biggest splash was from AstraZeneca's drug Imfinzi (durvalumab), which trains a patient's body to attack a protein in their cancer. Imfinzi's already routinely used in some late-stage, recurrent and metastatic cancers (in the treatment of solid lung and liver tumors, for example), but it hasn't been a go-to treatment for earlier-stage cancers.
The results from the company's late-stage phase-3 "Matterhorn" trial (NEJM 2025) presented at the conference, Imfinzi, taken with chemo after surgery, boosted gastric cancer patients' two-year survival rates from 70% (without the immunotherapy) to nearly 76% — a significant jump.
However, investigations into the company’s Chinese operations cast a shadow over AZ’s overall performance toward the end of the year. Chinese authorities have detained AZ’s then-China president, Leon Wang, and the probes are reportedly centered on the alleged illegal importation of Enhertu and the cancer immunotherapy Imjudo from Hong Kong to the mainland as well as improper collection of patient data.
After logging double-digit quarterly sales growth in China in the first nine months of 2024, AZ instead posted a 3% decrease at constant exchange rates in the country in the fourth quarter. Rather than the ongoing investigation, AZ attributed the decline to “year-end hospital ordering dynamics” of Tagrisso and Farxiga, plus lower demand for its respiratory medicines because of a mild infection season.
Despite China’s weak contribution, AZ’s overall four-quarter revenue still jumped 25% at constant exchange rates.
AZ’s biggest product, Farxiga, saw sales up an impressive 29% last year to reach $7.7 billion. The drug is, however, slated to take a mandatory price cut under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2026.
The EGFR inhibitor king, Tagrisso also managed a 13% sales growth to $6.6 billion with two new FDA approvals last year, one in combination with chemotherapy in first-line EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer and the other for stage 3 EGFR lung cancer. But the drug is facing competition from Johnson & Johnson’s cocktail of Rybrevant and Lazcluze.
Related: AstraZeneca, facing lung cancer challenge from J&J, touts life-extension benefit for Tagrisso combo
While locked in a fierce competition with BeiGene’s rival BTK inhibitor Brukinsa, Calquence was included in the second round of IRA price negotiations.
Following mixed phase 3 data and an FDA resubmission, AZ and Daiichi have in January 2025 won the FDA’s go-ahead for their second ADC, TROP2-directed Datroway, in HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
In a new approval in 2024, AZ’s Alexion picked up an FDA nod for the factor D inhibitor Voydeya as an add-on therapy to treat paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria patients with extravascular hemolysis.
On the dealmaking front, AZ last year inked a $2 billion buyout of radiopharmaceuticals specialist Fusion Pharmaceuticals. AZ also paid CSPC Pharma $100 million upfront for a preclinical candidate targeting lipoprotein (a), which has also attracted the interest of Eli Lilly and Merck & Co.
For 2025, AZ doesn’t expect the same level of growth it saw in 2024, instead projecting revenue to increase by a high single-digit percentage at unchanged exchange rates. Part of that is the result of pressure from the Medicare Part D redesign that just went into effect this year, along with the U.S. loss of exclusivity of blood thinner Brilinta. With several key readouts anticipated throughout 2025, AZ believes it will have a good sense as to whether it can reach the $80 billion-by-2030 revenue target CEO Pascal Soriot outlined in 2024.
Related:- Ticagrelor doubts: inaccuracies uncovered in key studies for AstraZeneca’s billion dollar drug (BMJ 2025)
- Zegfrovy (Sunvozertinib) from Dizal: US FDA OKs First-of-Its-Kind Lung Cancer Pill (July 2025)
5. Sinopharm Group
- 2024 revenue: $73.9 B (USD)
- Market Cap: $7.37 B (USD) (Hong Kong listed)
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 0.08 - 0.15 (September 2025 range)
For context, Eli Lilly’s P/S ratio is approximately 15.5 (market cap of $700 billion divided by $45 billion revenue), highlighting the stark valuation difference between the two companies despite Sinopharm’s substantial revenue.
This discrepancy suggests that Sinopharm’s stock price does not fully reflect its revenue-generating capacity, potentially due to market perceptions, regional factors, or other risks affecting investor confidence.
Sinopharm Group is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the ticker 1099.HK.
6. AbbVie
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AbbVie's fast-growing immunology duo Skyrizi and
Rinvoq is more than making up for the company's
sinking Humira sales. AbbVie |
- 2024 revenue: $56.3 billion
- 2025 First-Quarter Revenue: US$13.3B (up 8.4% from 1Q 2024).
- 2025 Second-Quarter Revenue: US$15.4B (up 8.4% from 1Q 2024).
- 2025 (9 months): $42.0B (est., H1: $26.6B, Q3 expected $15.5B)
- Headquarters: North Chicago
The duo’s showing in IBD prompted AbbVie to crank up its 2027
sales projection for the meds to a combined $31 billion, making
for a $4 billion increase to its previous guidance. Out of that
$4 billion, $2 billion goes to Skyrizi’s estimated sales in IBD
and $500 million was added to Rinvoq’s in the same
indication.
The company expects Skyrizi will bring in
$20 billion in 2027 and Rinvoq’s sales will hit $11 billion.
That $31 billion total is more than Humira, Skyrizi and Rinvoq
together achieved in 2022 sales.
Outside of
immunology, the company is working on priming another
blockbuster after nabbing a long-awaited
FDA approval for its Parkinson’s disease therapy
Vyalev, a follow-up to its 2015 infusion pump Duopa. The drug
could eventually achieve more than $2 billion in peak sales,
analysts at Evercore ISI previously forecast.
2025,
meanwhile, should see AbbVie grow its sales by mid-single-digit
percentages, the company forecast. With no major losses of
exclusivity in the near future, AbbVie is working with a “clear
runway to growth for at least the next eight years,” CEO Rob
Michael noted during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings
call.
2024 was former Chief Operating Officer
Michael’s first year at the helm after longtime chief Richard
Gonzalez hung up the gloves after seeing Humira out. The company
awarded Michael about $18.5 million in pay after he “achieved or
exceeded” multiple goals over the year.
7. Eli Lilly
- 2024 revenue: $45 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: Q1: $12.73B; Q2: $15.6B
- 2025 (9 months): $44.3B (est., H1: $28.33B, Q3 expected $16.01B)
- Headquarters: Indianapolis
The second quarter of 2025 also marked the first time that Lilly’s combined worldwide sales of Mounjaro (diabetes) and Zepbound (obesity) topped those of Novo’s first-to-market products Ozempic (diabetes) and Wegovy (obesity).
The margin was $8.6 billion for Lilly and $8 billion for Novo, with Mounjaro and Zepbound also individually edging their Novo counterparts for the first time. It was a massive shift from the first quarter, when the combined sales of Novo’s two products came in at $7.5 billion, compared to $6.1 billion for Lilly. With its second-quarter report, Lilly bumped up the midpoint of its annual guidance by $1.5 billion to a new range of $60 billion to $62 billion.
Revenue in Q1 2025 increased 45% to $12.73 billion driven by volume growth from Mounjaro (Tirzepatide) and Zepbound.
In the eternal struggle for obesity market dominance, Indianapolis’ Eli Lilly may be gaining an upper hand over its chief metabolic medicine rival Novo Nordisk.
Last year, Lilly recorded $45 billion in total sales, good for 32% growth over the roughly $34 billion it pocketed in 2023. In the fourth quarter alone, Lilly’s sales swelled 45% to $13.53 billion, which the company credited in no uncertain terms to the 60% revenue jump its Type 2 diabetes blockbuster Mounjaro enjoyed over the last three months of the year.
Meanwhile, Mounjaro’s GLP-1 sibling Zepbound—which is approved for obesity—grew sales roughly elevenfold in 2024’s fourth quarter, taking home $1.9 billion versus just $175 million during the quarter in 2023.
Those drugs’ performance likely “dispelled suspense” among both industry watchers and investors, analysts at Citi wrote in a note to clients earlier this year. The comments followed a third-quarter sales scare for Lilly last year, during which the company’s GLP-1 duo failed to meet Wall Street expectations. Some keeping tabs on the field speculated that the lackluster sales performance could be evidence that the larger GLP-1 market had started to plateau.
Lilly executives, for their part, have pointed to the uncertainties underpinning the burgeoning GLP-1 industry.
"The scale of this business and the way it's been growing, the consumer part of it, along with the stocking dynamics, it's just been a learning [experience] for us," Lilly CEO David Ricks said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January, reflecting on an unpopular sales guidance cut that the helmsman attributed to an overestimation of the pace of growth for Mounjaro and Zepbound.
In January, Lilly cut its sales guidance for 2024 to about $45 billion, representing a decline from the $45.4 billion to $46 billion the company had previously projected.
But, while Lilly may have fallen short of its own expectations toward the end of 2024, the fact remains that “it’s early days on a very, very large opportunity,” Ricks said of the GLP-1 situation on a recent conference call. Further, the company thinks its still far from reaching the edge of the demand curve for obesity, Ricks added.
Looking ahead, Lilly expects to reel in 2025 sales between $58 billion and $61 billion. Mounjaro and Zepbound will contribute greatly to that haul, naturally, but a suite of new drugs like cancer med Jaypirca, atopic dermatitis treatment Ebglyss, ulcerative colitis drug Omvoh and Alzheimer’s disease therapy Kisunla are also expected to pull their weight this year, Ricks said in early February.
Meanwhile, much like Novo, the continued success of Lilly’s GLP-1 franchise hinges on manufacturing capacity and the company’s ability to meet rampant demand.
Related:
- GLP-1 Receptor Agonists May Modestly Reduce Risk of Fourteen Obesity-Related Cancers for People with Diabetes (2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology)
- Tirzepatide: a novel therapeutic approach for Alzheimer’s disease (2025 Metabolic Brain Disease)
- Clinical Evidence for GLP-1 Receptor Agonists in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Systematic Review (J Alzheimers Dis Rep. 2024)
- Neurodegeneration and Stroke After Semaglutide and Tirzepatide in Patients With Diabetes and Obesity (2025 JAMA)
To that end, Lilly recently revealed plans to build out four new production facilities in the U.S. beginning this year. The project, which is backed by a $27 billion investment, more than doubles what Lilly has earmarked for U.S. manufacturing since 2020 and will help expand domestic capacity for both active pharmaceutical ingredients and injectable drugs.
Mazdutide
Eli Lilly’s wildly successful GLP-1 drug discovery engine is
poised to deliver another blockbuster. But, this time around,
Innovent is set to be the near-term beneficiary, with the
Chinese biotech awaiting approvals for the dual GLP-1/glucagon
receptor agonist mazdutide in two indications in its home
territory.
Innovent secured Chinese rights to
mazdutide in 2019. Last year, the biotech reported two phase 3
wins, leading to filings for approval in China to aid in weight
management for adults with obesity or who are overweight and in
glycemic control for adults with Type 2 diabetes. The filings
could secure the first global approvals for mazdutide and
establish the molecule as a challenger for the Chinese GLP-1
market.
If approved, mazdutide will become the first
dual GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonist for use in diabetes and
obesity. Activating the glucagon receptor may increase energy
expenditure, driving changes in the liver, brain and white and
brown adipose tissue that complement the reduced energy intake
triggered by GLP-1 activation. Innovent reported 18.6% weight
loss at Week 48 in a trial of Chinese adults.
Work to
expand the anticipated label of mazdutide is already underway.
Innovent is running a late-phase trial of a 9-mg dose in
obesity, having initially filed for approval of a 6-mg dose.
Another late-phase trial is pitting the drug candidate against
Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide—the active ingredient in Ozempic and
Wegovy—in people with Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Late-phase
trials in obesity with metabolic dysfunction-associated
steatotic liver disease, adolescent obesity and obstructive
sleep apnea are at the planning stages. Innovent’s earlier-stage
pipeline includes studies in metabolic dysfunction-associated
steatohepatitis (MASH) and heart failure with preserved ejection
fraction.
The expansion into MASH is underpinned by a study that linked
mazdutide to an 80% reduction in liver fat at Week 48. Speaking
at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2025,
Innovent CEO Michael Yu, Ph.D.,
said
the data were “way better than the FDA approval for MASH,”
referring to Madrigal’s Rezdiffra, which earned the FDA’s
first approval in the indication
last year. Yu said he views mazdutide as a way to improve
metabolism and make people healthier rather than just as a
weight loss drug.
Innovent spent 2024 working to expand its cardiovascular and
metabolism team in preparation for the launches of mazdutide and
teprotumumab, the thyroid eye disease therapy that Amgen sells
outside of China as Tepezza.
Lilly owns the rights to
mazdutide outside of China, but how far the Big Pharma takes the
candidate will depend on its ability to clear the bar set by
tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound. The
prospects for mazdutide at Lilly could become clearer this year,
with a phase 2 trial of the asset
set
to wrap up in the coming months. Lilly has recruited 179
patients for the trial, mainly using U.S. sites.
8. Novartis
- 2024 revenue: $50.3 billion
- 2025 First-Quarter Revenue: US$13.2B (up 12% from 1Q 2024)
- 2025 Second-Quarter Revenue: US$14.1 B (up 11% from 2Q 2024) (Novartis.com)
- 2025 First-Half Revenue: US$27.3 B
- 2025 (9 months): $40.2B (est., H1: $26.4B, Q3 expected $14.07B)
- Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
As a new corporate structure and business priorities set in, Novartis is focused on growth at a compound annual rate of 6% from 2023 to 2028, or 5% from 2024 to 2029, according to a plan unveiled in November.
The Swiss pharma was off to a good start. In 2024, the first full year that Novartis operated as a pure-play innovative medicines company without Sandoz, sales were up 12% in constant currencies (11% in U.S. dollars) from continuing operations, reaching $50.3 billion.
The company’s top four brands—heart medication Entresto, immunology treatment Cosentyx, multiple sclerosis drug Kesimpta and breast-cancer-targeted Kisqali—all contributed to the growth big time, with sales rising 30%, 23%, 49% and 46%, respectively.
In a key approval last year, Kisqali expanded into the adjuvant treatment of certain early-stage HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancers. The new label gives Kisqali an edge over Eli Lilly’s Verzenio by covering patients who don’t have cancer cells in their lymph nodes.
By Novartis’ projection, the broad adjuvant nod could lift Kisqali to more than $8 billion in peak sales, versus the $3.2 billion the CDK4/6 inhibitor generated in 2024 mainly from metastatic disease use.
While potential significant growth still lies ahead for Kisqali, the good days of Entresto may be numbered, as Novartis expects the heart failure combo medication will lose U.S. market exclusivity in the coming months. Besides, even if no generics entered this year, Entresto is subject to a price cut under the Inflation Reduction Act beginning in 2026.
Despite the looming Entresto patent cliff, Novartis still expects 2025 sales to grow by mid- to high-single-digit percentages.
From the Medicare Part D reforms, Novartis expects a “modest headwind,” with the biggest impact to come from coverage for the catastrophic phase for Cosentyx and Kisqali in 2025, CEO Vas Narasimhan said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. As to the policies’ potential impact on Novartis’ midterm performance as outlined above, Narasimhan said he’s “very comfortable” with Novartis’ modeling, which takes “appropriately conservative assumptions.”
In two other major expansions for Novartis last year, the FDA granted accelerated approvals to Scemblix in newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia and Fabhalta in the kidney disease immunoglobulin A nephropathy. For both drugs, Novartis has outlined peak sales potential at above $3 billion.
Another potential multibillion-dollar asset, radioligand therapy Pluvicto, also delivered good news for Novartis. With a favorable final overall survival analysis last year from a phase 3 trial, the FDA has in March 2025 approved the PSMA-targeted therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer before chemotherapy.
Novartis last year beefed up its radiopharmaceuticals capabilities with the $1 billion upfront acquisition of Mariana Oncology. While Pluvicto uses lutetium as the active substance, Mariana was focused on actinium.
The Swiss drugmaker also acquired gene therapy specialist Kate Therapeutics in a deal potentially worth $1.1 billion. The buyout was followed by a positive readout for an intrathecal formulation of Novartis’ spinal muscular atrophy gene therapy Zolgensma in older patients.
However, one Novartis acquisition last year immediately went into trouble. Just a few months after the $2.9 billion takeover of MorphoSys, Novartis pushed back its regulatory plan for the deal’s centerpiece, BET inhibitor pelabresib, in myelofibrosis after running into a safety signal that the company now hopes to shed more light on after longer follow-ups.9. Pfizer
Pfizer bounced back after COVID-related fluctuations sent sales spiraling in 2023. Pfizer
- 2024 revenue: $63.6 billion
- 2025 First-Quarter reported sales growth of -8% (compared to the same period in 2024) to USD $13.7 Billion
- 2025 2nd-Quarter reported sales growth of 10% (compared to the same period in 2024) to USD $14.7 Billion
- 2025 (9 months): $42.05B (est., H1: $27.4B, Q3 expected $14.65B)
- Headquarters: New York City
- Pfizer Inc., the U.S.-based multinational pharmaceutical company, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol PFE. Its Indian subsidiary, Pfizer Limited, is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) under the security code 500680 and on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) under the symbol PFIZER.
The past few years for Pfizer have reflected both high highs and low lows as the company’s COVID-19 products reacted to inconsistent demand. The company seems to have emerged from the choppy waters on solid ground as it ended 2024 with a clutch of new products sweetening its revenue pot.
A significant change to Pfizer’s 2024 revenue was new earnings from its $43 billion Seagen buyout, which wrapped up at the end of 2023 and added four established oncology drugs and a major pipeline upgrade. In reporting its 2024 revenue, the company opted to retroactively add sales from the Seagen medicines to its 2023 bottom line, reflecting a more accurate growth rate in comparing the two years.
With Seagen’s products and the $3.4 billion they earned included, the New York-based drugmaker's revenues had a 7% growth spurt. Taking out sales from COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid and BioNTech-partnered vaccine Comirnaty, that figure jumps to a 12% sales increase.
It’s a welcome return to growth for Pfizer after COVID products in 2023 prompted an overall revenue decline of more than 40%. The company now finds itself firmly back on track, with revenue volatility “largely in the past” as COVID-related uncertainties have “diminished,” Pfizer declared in its earnings presentation (PDF).
In 2024, however, those uncertainties played out largely in Pfizer’s favor with surprise revenue boosts for Comirnaty and Paxlovid. Both pulled around $5 billion in sales, which was down for Comirnaty compared to 2023 but a boost on Paxlovid’s end. Usage of the antiviral is in line with COVID-19 burden and the ebb and flow of infection rates, the company pointed out, demonstrating the “sustainability” of the two-product COVID portfolio.
As for the company’s other vaccines, respiratory syncytial virus vaccine Abrysvo was negatively impacted by narrowed vaccine recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency flipped on its previous recommendation for all adults aged 60 and older to instead recommend the vaccine for people 75 years and older and those aged 60 to 74 with a higher risk of severe disease. A decline in vaccination rates due to the shrunken U.S. market played a part in Abrysvo sales falling 62% during 2024’s fourth quarter, Pfizer said, although the shot picked up $890 million in yearly sales.
Meanwhile, Pfizer’s long-dominant pneumococcal vaccine franchise, Prevnar, saw relatively flat sales over the year but could face trouble on the horizon with Merck and its 21-serotype Capvaxive eager to edge in on Prevnar’s turf.
10. Bristol Myers Squibb
- 2024 revenue: $48.3 billion
- 2025 First-Quarter reported a total revenue of USD 11.2 B. 6% decrease year over year.
- 2025 Second-Quarter reported a total revenue of USD 12.3 B.
- 2025 (9 months): $35.8B (est., H1: $23.5B, Q3 expected $12.3B)
- Headquarters: Princeton, New Jersey
Heading into 2025, however, BMS is anticipating another contraction. The company forecast total revenues of approximately $45.5 billion for this year, which would represent a decrease of about 5.8%.
On a February conference call, while discussing the expected revenue drop—which came in about $1 billion short of consensus expectations—CEO Chris Boerner, Ph.D., noted: “We’re seeing the increased step-down on Revlimid.”
Elsewhere in 2025, the company will be continuing a multiyear cost-cutting plan that aims to save $2 billion by the end of 2027. Boerner said on the call that about half of the savings will be accomplished by the end of this year, and, while the restructuring is expected to include layoffs, the company did not specify how many jobs would be affected.
The latest cost-cutting effort begins as BMS works on wrapping up another initiative that it introduced in early 2024, aimed at slashing $1.5 billion in costs by the end of this year and including more than 2,000 total layoffs.
Both savings drives come as the pharma prepares for both Opdivo and Eliquis to lose exclusivity before the end of the decade, when they’re set to join Revlimid in seeing their sales plummet. Eliquis sales may take a further hit in 2026, when it becomes part of the first group of drugs to see their prices negotiated down under the Inflation Reduction Act.11 - 20 (Others):
11. Sanofi
Although Sanofi slipped in Fierce Pharma’s 2024 rankings of the top pharma companies by sales, the change doesn't mark any tangible setback for the drugmaker.
In fact, the move down the ladder can easily be explained by the drugmaker’s planned sale of a controlling stake in its consumer health unit Opella, which, for all intents and purposes, was treated as though it’s a done deal in Sanofi’s 2024 financials.
For all of 2024, Sanofi logged sales of 41.08 billion euros ($44.46 billion), a step down from the roughly 43 billion euros it reported in 2023 but an 8.6% increase when accounting for the subtraction of consumer health sales last year.
Word of a planned consumer health sale by Sanofi began to materialize around September, when Bloomberg reported that the French pharma had received separated offers from equity firms PAI Partners and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for the roughly 15 billion euro over-the-counter business.
Reports of mounting interest in the unit, dubbed Opella, followed an announcement by Sanofi in October 2023 that the company was reviewing multiple separation scenarios for the business, including a potential listing or sale.
Soon after the Bloomberg report, Sanofi confirmed last October that it had entered negotiations with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice to potentially sell a 50% controlling stake in Opella, which produces well-known brands like Allegra, Icy Hot, Gold Bond and Selsun Blue. Those talks became “exclusive” several weeks later and, as of February, Sanofi said it continues to expect to close the 50% stake sale with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in 2025’s second quarter “at the earliest.”
Looking at Sanofi’s core 2024 performance, new launches paid off well for the company, making up 11% of the drugmaker’s total sales last year. That launch momentum was led by the company’s respiratory syncytial virus antibody for infants and young children Beyfortus, which delivered nearly 1.7 billion euros ($1.84 billion) for the entire year, followed up by hemophilia med Altuviiio, Pompe disease drug Nexviazyme and Rezurock for graft-versus-host disease.
Looking ahead, Sanofi is optimistic it can continue its growth trajectory in 2025, with the expectation that it’ll grow sales by a mid- to high-single-digit percentage over the year to come.
Meanwhile, with so many launches in the hopper, Sanofi has been continuously investing in its manufacturing network, too, with many of those investments piling up toward the end of 2024.
Following the opening of a half-billion-dollar modular plant for biologics and vaccines in September, Sanofi unveiled a production expansion in France and then touted the debut of a separate modular vaccine site in Singapore. Then, in December, Sanofi rolled out its largest investment in China to date when it revealed plans to build a 1 billion euro insulin “manufacturing base” in the country.12. Novo Nordisk
- 2024 revenue: USD $42.1 billion (290 billion Danish kroner)
- H1 2025 revenue: USD $24.25 billion
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 7.0 - 7.5 (September 2025 range)
Over the last 12 months, Novo’s share price has fallen by more than 60%, and the company—formerly with the highest market cap in Europe—has tumbled to No. 7 in the region. With the slide, Novo has replaced eight-year CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, promoting international operations chief Maziar Mike Doustdar effective earlier this month.
13. GSK
14. Amgen
15. Takeda
16. Boehringer Ingelheim
17. Gilead Sciences
18. Bayer
19. Merck KGaA
20. Teva Pharmaceuticals
Top 10 Pharma Companies by Market Cap in 2025
1. Eli Lilly
- 2024 revenue: $45 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: Q1: $12.73B; Q2: $15.6B
- Market Cap: ~$781 B (TradingView)
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio* of 14 - 16 (September 2025 range), making it relatively overvalued compared to its industry peers.* (TradingView)
- Headquarters: Indianapolis
- Recommendation (Buy/Hold/Sell) for LLY: Buy (Grok 4)
- Confidence Level: Medium
- Expected time frame: Buy and Hold for 6-12 months
- 1 month price target: $780
2. Johnson & Johnson
- 2024 revenue: $88.8 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: $45.6 billion (Q1: $21.9B; Q2: $23.7B) (jnj.com)
- 9 M 2025 Revenue: $69.6B
- Market Cap: ~$458.72B (TradingView)
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 4.1 - 4.3* (Under-Valued)
- Headquarters: New Brunswick, New Jersey
- Recommendation (Buy/Hold/Sell) for JNJ: Buy (Grok 4)
- Confidence Level: Medium
- Expected time frame: Buy and Hold for 1 month
- 1 month price target: $182
3. AbbVie
- 2024 revenue: $56.3 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: Approximately $26.6 billion (Q1: $13.3B; Q2 est.: $13.3B)
- Market Cap: $402.75B
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 5.8 - 6.0
- Headquarters: North Chicago
4. AstraZeneca
- 2024 revenue: $54.1 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: $28 billion (11% growth at constant exchange rates)
- Market Cap: $259.46B
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 4.06 - 4.08
- Headquarters: Cambridge, U.K.
5. Novo Nordisk (NVO)
-
2024 revenue: USD $42.1 billion (290 billion
Danish kroner)
-
H1 2025 Revenue: Q1: $12.1B; Q2: $11.68B
-
Market Cap: $235.81 B (TradingView)
-
Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 6.1 - 6.25
(lower as compared to LLY)
- Undervalued vs. Lilly; Wegovy MASH approval; CEO change.
- 2024 revenue: USD $42.1 billion (290 billion Danish kroner)
- H1 2025 Revenue: Q1: $12.1B; Q2: $11.68B
- Market Cap: $235.81 B (TradingView)
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 6.1 - 6.25 (lower as compared to LLY)
- Undervalued vs. Lilly; Wegovy MASH approval; CEO change.
6. Roche
- 2024 revenue: USD $73.6 billion (60.5 billion Swiss francs)
- H1 2025 Revenue: $32.1 billion (Q1: $18.7B; Q2: $13.4B est.)
- 9 M 2025 Revenue: $52.8B
- Market Cap: $272.9 B (Swiss Exchange)
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 3.56 - 3.58 (Under-Valued)
- Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
7. Novartis
- 2024 revenue: $50.3 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: Approx. $26.4 billion (Q1: $13.2B; Q2 est.: $13.2B)
- Market Cap: $252.35B
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 4.8 - 5.0
- Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
8 . Merck
- 2024 revenue: $64.2 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: Approximately $31 billion (Q1: $15.5B; Q2 est.: $15.5B)
- Market Cap: $218.53B
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 3.1 - 3.3 (Under-Valued)
- R&D Spending 2024: $17.9 billion
- Headquarters: Rahway, New Jersey
9. Amgen
- 2024 revenue: $33.4 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: Estimated $16.5 billion
- Market Cap: $157.07 B
- Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio: 4.6 - 4.8
- Immunology/oncology growth; Prolia biosimilars.
10. Pfizer
- 2024 revenue: $63.6 billion
- H1 2025 Revenue: Approx. $27.4 billion (Q1: $13.7B; Q2 est.: $13.7B)
- Market Cap (NYSE): $150.06B
- Headquarters: New York City
Notable Pharma stock with strong recent performance
- Ascentage Pharma Group International Co., Ltd. (6855.HK) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company. It engages in the development of novel therapies for cancers, hepatitis B virus, or HBV, and age-related diseases.
- Ascentage Pharma continues strong, with 129.97% YTD gain and new approvals.
- Market Cap (HKEX): $28.9 B
- In its 2025 interim results, Ascentage reported sales of its flagship product olverembatinib surged 93% year-over-year, and the company received approval for lisaftoclax in CLL/SLL treatment, opening new market avenues. Ascentage's stock has shown volatility but strong performance, with a 129.97% year-to-date gain as of mid-2025, trading around HK$76-78. The firm has been active in global conferences, such as Citi’s Biopharma Back to School, highlighting its pipeline and attracting investor interest.
Top 10 Most Anticipated Drug Launches of 2025
So, what exactly is responsible for the predicted 2030 deluge? Topping Evaluate’s 2025 list is a new cystic fibrosis offering from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, already a giant in the space. Vanza triple snagged its FDA approval a bit early, at the end of 2024, after which it was christened with the commercial name Alyftrek. The triple combination drug improves on its predecessor Trikafta in multiple areas, and Evaluate is predicting a massive $8.3 billion annual haul for Alyftrek by 2030. Second on this year’s slate is a repeat from last year. Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s datopotamab deruxtecan, which came in at No. 5 in 2024, didn’t end up earning an FDA nod last year. It's already off to a strong start in 2025, though, as the antibody-drug conjugate gained its first approval in January. Evaluate is predicting 2030 sales of nearly $6 billion for the drug, which is now marketed as Datroway.
Elsewhere on this year’s list are offerings from Sanofi, GSK, Johnson & Johnson and more, spanning indications such as multiple sclerosis, severe asthma and, of course, the hyperpopular obesity and Type 2 diabetes space.
1. Vertex’s Alyftrek (Vanza triple)
Used for: Cystic fibrosis
Est. 2030 sales: $8.3 billion
2. Datopotamab deruxtecan (Datroway)
Used for: Lung and breast cancers
Est. 2030 sales: $5.9 billion
3. Suzetrigine
Company: Vertex PharmaceuticalsUsed for: Acute and neuropathic pain
Est. 2030 sales: $2.9 billion
4. Aficamten
Company: CytokineticsUsed for: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Est. 2030 sales: $2.8 billion
5. Brensocatib
Company: InsmedUsed for: Neutrophil-mediated diseases
Est. 2030 sales: $2.8 billion
6. Mazdutide
Used for: Type 2 diabetes and obesity
Est. 2030 sales: $1.3 billion
7. Tolebrutinib
Used for: Multiple sclerosis
Est. 2030 sales: $1.4 billion
8. Depemokimab
Company: GSKUsed for: Severe allergic asthma
Est. 2030 sales: $1.2 billion
9. Meningococcal ABCWY vaccine
Company: GSKUsed for: Meningococcal A, B, C, W-135 and Y vaccine
Est. 2030 sales: $1.2 billion
10. Nipocalimab
Company: Johnson & JohnsonUsed for: Myasthenia gravis and other autoimmune disorders
Est. 2030 sales: $1.2 billion
Top 10 Drugs Losing US Exclusivity in 2025
Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara is already contending with several biosimilars, with more expected throughout the year. With $6.72 billion in U.S. sales projected for 2024, Stelara represents the largest U.S. loss of exclusivity since AbbVie’s Humira patent cliff in early 2023. Although Johnson & Johnson had anticipated a “late 2023” patent expiration, the company extended Stelara’s market life through legal settlements (1, 2, 3).
Johnson & Johnson is not alone in losing exclusivity on key revenue drivers this year. Regeneron faces biosimilar competition for its eye drug Eylea, Amgen for its bone medicines Prolia and Xgeva, and Novartis for its heart failure therapy Entresto.
Eylea encountered its first U.S. biosimilar when Amgen launched Pavblu in November 2024. Despite the biosimilar launch occurring last year, Eylea remains relevant for this report due to ongoing market developments for Regeneron (2).
Amgen generated $4.39 billion in revenue from Prolia and Xgeva in 2024. The company, known for its biosimilar portfolio, will now face competition as biosimilars begin to erode the market share of these originators starting in late May and early June (2).
Novartis has warned of a “mid-2025” loss of U.S. exclusivity for Entresto, as a key patent expires this summer. Novartis also has two other major products on this list: Promacta and Tasigna.Further down the list, AstraZeneca has two high-profile drugs nearing patent expiration. Soliris, acquired through AZ’s purchase of Alexion, is expected to face its first biosimilar from Amgen in the second quarter of 2025. Brilinta, a cardiometabolic drug once projected as a blockbuster but which underperformed expectations, is also losing U.S. patent protection soon (2).
To illustrate the prominence of drugs on this list, last year’s leader was Bristol Myers Squibb’s Sprycel, with $1.45 billion in prior-year U.S. sales. However, compared to the 2025 patent expirations, Sprycel would rank only sixth.This year’s wave of biosimilar launches and patent expirations marks a significant shift in the pharmaceutical landscape, with major implications for market dynamics, pricing, and patient access. Johnson & Johnson and other top pharma players will need to navigate these challenges while leveraging newer therapies to sustain growth.
1. Stelara
Diseases: Psoriatic arthritis, plaque psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitisCompany: Johnson & Johnson
2024 U.S. sales: $6.72 billion
2. Eylea
Company: Regeneron
2024 U.S. sales: $4.77 billion
3. Prolia/Xgeva
Company: Amgen
2024 U.S. sales: $4.39 billion
4. Entresto
Disease: Heart failureCompany: Novartis
2024 U.S. sales: $4.05 billion
5. Soliris
Diseases: Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD)Company: AstraZeneca
2024 U.S. sales: $1.52 billion
6. Promacta
Diseases: Thrombocytopenia, aplastic anemiaCompany: Novartis
2024 U.S. sales: $1.18 billion
7. Simponi/Simponi Aria
Diseases: Rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, ulcerative colitis, polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritisCompany: Johnson & Johnson
2024 U.S. sales: $1.08 billion
8. Tysabri
Diseases: Multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s diseaseCompany: Biogen
2024 U.S. sales: $920 million
9. Tasigna
Disease: Chronic myeloid leukemiaCompany: Novartis
2024 U.S. sales: $848 million
10. Brilinta
Diseases: Acute coronary syndrome, coronary artery disease, acute ischemic stroke, high-risk transient ischemic attackCompany: AstraZeneca
2024 U.S. sales: $751 million
Disclaimer
The information presented in this article, is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial, investment, or medical advice. The revenue figures, company rankings, and projections are based on publicly available data, company reports, and industry estimates as of 2025. All currency conversions, where applicable, are based on annual average exchange rates, and revenues outside the health sciences sector have been excluded for consistency.
While efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the information, One Day Advisor and the article’s authors do not guarantee the completeness, reliability, or suitability of the content for any particular purpose. Readers are encouraged to verify details independently and consult qualified professionals before making any business, investment, or healthcare decisions based on the information provided.
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