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Top Cancer Drug Companies (2026 Update): Leaders by Revenue, Pipeline, and Growth

Medically & Financially Reviewed by: Dr. Frank Yap, MD, MBA | Written by: OneDayAdvisor Editorial Team | Last Updated: September 2026

Quick Answer

Merck & Co. remains the world's top cancer drug company by 2025 oncology revenue (~$35.4 billion, driven overwhelmingly by Keytruda), followed by Roche (~$29–30 billion), AstraZeneca ($25.6 billion), Johnson & Johnson ($25.4 billion), and Bristol Myers Squibb (~$25.0 billion). Global oncology drug spending topped an estimated $291 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach roughly $467 billion by 2030 (IQVIA Institute), making cancer treatment the single largest therapeutic category in pharmaceuticals. The competitive picture keeps shifting: Merck's Keytruda faces a 2028 patent cliff, BMS's Revlimid has already lost roughly half its sales to generics, and a wave of Chinese-originated antibody-drug conjugates and PD-1×VEGF bispecifics is reshaping pipelines industry-wide.

The oncology drug market looks nothing like it did even two years ago. Cancer remains, by a wide margin, the largest single therapeutic category in global pharmaceutical spending — larger than immunology, larger than diabetes and obesity drugs combined, and still growing at a double-digit clip. But underneath that headline number, the competitive landscape has fractured. Legacy blockbusters like Revlimid and Herceptin have been gutted by generic and biosimilar competition; Keytruda, the best-selling drug of any kind on Earth, is now on a visible countdown to its own 2028 patent cliff; and a new wave of Chinese-originated antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and PD-1×VEGF bispecific antibodies has triggered a licensing gold rush among Western pharma giants.

This guide ranks the ten largest cancer drug companies by disclosed 2025 oncology revenue, using each company's own full-year and fourth-quarter financial filings (SEC filings, investor releases, and earnings calls) rather than third-party estimates. Where a company reports a single "oncology" line item — as AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and AbbVie all do — we use that figure directly. Where a company does not (Roche reports "Oncology/Haematology" as a combined therapeutic area; Bristol Myers Squibb reports individual product sales without a consolidated oncology total), we note that explicitly and show our math.

Table of Contents

The 2025–2026 Oncology Market at a Glance

According to the IQVIA Institute, global spending on cancer medicines reached approximately $291 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a 9–12% compound annual rate to roughly $467 billion by 2030. Oncology has held the title of the single largest therapeutic area in pharmaceuticals for over a decade, well ahead of immunology (the next-largest category) and dwarfing individual disease categories.

For comparison, the GLP-1 and dual-agonist obesity/diabetes category — the other story dominating pharma headlines — is enormous but still smaller in aggregate: Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound alone generated $36.5 billion in combined 2025 revenue, and Novo Nordisk's semaglutide franchise adds tens of billions more. But no single obesity drug franchise yet rivals Keytruda's $31.7 billion in standalone 2025 sales, and the oncology category as a whole remains roughly 60–70% larger than the entire GLP-1/obesity segment.

Three structural shifts define the 2025–2026 oncology landscape:

  • Targeted therapies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) now dominate new growth. Enhertu, Padcev, Trodelvy, Elahere, and a fast-growing pipeline of next-generation ADCs are outgrowing older chemotherapy and even some first-generation immunotherapies.
  • Checkpoint-inhibitor monotherapy growth is slowing, and combination/bispecific strategies are taking over. PD-1×VEGF bispecific antibodies — a class pioneered in China — have become the single most contested asset class in immuno-oncology licensing.
  • Generic and biosimilar erosion is now a multibillion-dollar drag on legacy franchises. Revlimid, once a $12.8 billion-a-year drug, saw U.S. sales collapse roughly 49% in 2025 alone as generics rolled out under volume-limited settlement agreements.

Quick-Reference Ranking Table

Rank Company 2025 Oncology Revenue YoY Growth 2025 Total Company Revenue Headquarters
1 Merck & Co. ~$35.4B +8% $65.0B Rahway, NJ
2 Roche ~CHF 24.3B (~$29B) +7% (CER) CHF 61.5B (~$74B) Basel, Switzerland
3 AstraZeneca $25.6B +18% $58.7B Cambridge, UK
4 Johnson & Johnson $25.4B +22% $94.2B New Brunswick, NJ
5 Bristol Myers Squibb ~$25.0B* n/a* $48.2B Princeton, NJ
6 Novartis $16.8B +18% $54.5B Basel, Switzerland
7 Pfizer $16.8B +8% $62.6B New York, NY
8 Eli Lilly $9.38B +7% $65.2B Indianapolis, IN
9 Astellas Pharma ~$8.5–9B* n/a* ¥2.1T (~$14.2B) Tokyo, Japan
10 AbbVie $6.655B +1.5% $61.2B North Chicago, IL

*Bristol Myers Squibb and Astellas do not disclose a single consolidated "oncology" revenue line. Figures marked with an asterisk are aggregated by OneDayMD from each company's own product-level disclosures (see individual sections and Methodology below). Fiscal years differ: Astellas reports an April–March fiscal year, so its FY2025 figure covers April 2025–March 2026. All other figures are calendar-year 2025. Market capitalizations cited throughout this article are approximate as of August 2026 and fluctuate daily.

1. Merck & Co.

  • 2025 total oncology revenue: ~$35.4 billion (Keytruda/Keytruda Qlex $31.68B, Lynparza alliance $1.45B, Lenvima alliance $1.05B, Welireg $716M, Reblozyl alliance $525M)
  • 2025 total company revenue: $65.0 billion (+1%)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$300 billion
  • Headquarters: Rahway, New Jersey

Merck's dominance of the cancer drug market comes down almost entirely to one molecule. Keytruda (pembrolizumab), including its newer subcutaneous formulation Keytruda Qlex, generated $31.7 billion in 2025, up 7%, cementing its position as the best-selling prescription drug in the world across any category — not just oncology. Keytruda now carries FDA approval across more than 40 indications spanning roughly 19 tumor types, and growth is increasingly coming from earlier-stage disease (triple-negative breast cancer, cervical cancer, bladder cancer) rather than late-line metastatic use.

The subcutaneous version, Keytruda Qlex, is central to Merck's defense strategy against the looming 2028 patent cliff. Sales of Qlex reached $463 million in the second quarter of 2026 alone, and Merck's CFO has said the company is targeting 30–40% U.S. adoption of the subcutaneous formulation by the end of 2027 — a formulation switch that could extend commercial life even after intravenous pembrolizumab faces biosimilar competition. In 2026, Keytruda and Keytruda Qlex also picked up a new ovarian cancer approval, an indication the drug previously lacked. Merck management has guided to peak Keytruda sales of roughly $35 billion before the 2028 cliff, and has pointed to more than $70 billion in potential non-risk-adjusted pipeline opportunity by the mid-2030s as the company diversifies beyond its flagship checkpoint inhibitor.

Keytruda - Diseases: 
  1. Melanoma, (KEYNOTE-006 and KEYNOTE-054 trials)*
  2. Non-small cell lung cancer, (KEYNOTE-010, KEYNOTE-407, KEYNOTE-189, KEYNOTE 671 trials)
  3. Head and neck cancer, (KEYNOTE-012 and KEYNOTE-048)
  4. Kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma), (KEYNOTE-426)
  5. Hodgkin lymphoma, (KEYNOTE-204)
  6. B-cell Lymphoma: primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, 
  7. Bladder cancer, (EV-302/KEYNOTE-A39) 
  8. Microsatellite instability-high or mismatch repair deficient cancers (MSI-H or dMMR),
  9. Gastric cancer, 
  10. Esophageal cancer, 
  11. cervical cancer, 
  12. liver cancer, 
  13. biliary tract cancer, 
  14. Merkel cell carcinoma, 
  15. endometrial cancer, 
  16. tumor mutational burden-high cancer, 
  17. cutaneous (skin) squamous cell carcinoma, 
  18. Triple-negative breast cancer. (ASCENT-04/KEYNOTE-D19 Study)
*The name KEYNOTE is not an acronym but rather a code that identifies specific clinical trials for the immunotherapy drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab). Merck & Co., the manufacturer of Keytruda, assigns a unique KEYNOTE number to each clinical study to track research into the drug's effectiveness for different cancers and treatment regimens.
Related: Keytruda (Pembrolizumab): 25 Landmark KEYNOTE Trials That Changed Cancer Treatment (2026)

Beyond Keytruda, Merck's oncology portfolio includes Welireg (up 41% in 2025 on continued launch uptake), and alliance revenue from Lynparza (partnered with AstraZeneca) and Lenvima (partnered with Eisai). Merck has also been active on the deal front in 2026, though its highest-profile recent acquisitions — Cidara Therapeutics and Terns Pharmaceuticals — sit outside oncology, reflecting a broader push to diversify revenue ahead of Keytruda's exclusivity loss.

2. Roche

  • 2025 Oncology/Haematology sales: ~CHF 24.3 billion (~$29 billion), roughly half of Roche's Pharmaceuticals Division
  • 2025 Pharmaceuticals Division sales: CHF 47.7 billion (+9% CER), ~$57 billion
  • 2025 Group sales (Pharma + Diagnostics): CHF 61.5 billion (+7% CER), ~$74 billion
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$367 billion
  • Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland

Roche reports oncology and hematology together as a single therapeutic area rather than breaking out a pure "cancer" figure, so exact comparisons to peers require some translation — but by any measure, Roche remains one of the two or three largest oncology franchises on the planet. The division's growth is now driven by a newer generation of medicines rather than the legacy trio (Avastin, Herceptin, MabThera/Rituxan) that once defined Roche's cancer business and has since been eroded by biosimilars.

Phesgo, the subcutaneous fixed-dose combination that is steadily replacing separately infused Perjeta and Herceptin in HER2-positive breast cancer, grew 48% in 2025 to CHF 2.44 billion. Kadcyla (CHF 2.03 billion), Alecensa (CHF 1.56 billion, lung cancer), and the DLBCL-focused Polivy (CHF 1.47 billion, up 38%) rounded out a portfolio that is successfully offsetting continued declines in Avastin, Herceptin, and MabThera/Rituxan. Roche's newer bispecific antibodies, Columvi and Lunsumio, are still ramping but represent the company's bet on the next wave of blood-cancer immunotherapy.

On the pipeline side, Roche's most closely watched oncology asset is giredestrant, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) in Phase III testing for early and metastatic breast cancer, with a giredestrant-plus-everolimus combination in pre-registration with the FDA. Roche has also joined the China in-licensing wave that has swept the industry: in 2026 it struck a roughly $1.3 billion deal with Innovent Biologics for IBI343, a Claudin 18.2-targeted ADC for gastric and pancreatic cancers.

3. AstraZeneca

  • 2025 Oncology Product Revenue: $25.6 billion (+18% actual, +17% CER) — 44% of total company revenue
  • 2025 total company revenue: $58.7 billion (+9%)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$265–285 billion
  • Headquarters: Cambridge, United Kingdom

No major pharmaceutical company has pushed harder into oncology over the past decade than AstraZeneca, and 2025 was the payoff year: oncology grew 18% to $25.6 billion, now representing nearly half of the entire company's revenue. Tagrisso, the EGFR-mutated lung cancer drug, remains AstraZeneca's single largest oncology product at $7.25 billion (+10%), while Imfinzi surged 29% to $6.06 billion on expanded approvals in bladder and gastric/gastroesophageal junction cancers.

The standout growth story, however, is Enhertu, the HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate co-developed and co-commercialized with Daiichi Sankyo. AstraZeneca's share of Enhertu revenue jumped 40% to $2.78 billion in 2025, and combined global sales recorded by both partners reached nearly $5 billion for the year — with analysts projecting the drug could approach $14 billion in annual sales by the early 2030s. Calquence ($3.52 billion, +12%) and Lynparza ($3.28 billion, +7%) round out a five-drug multiblockbuster core, while newer launches Truqap (+69%) and Datroway (AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's second ADC collaboration) are still ramping.

AstraZeneca's 2026 guidance calls for continued mid-to-high single-digit revenue growth and low double-digit core EPS growth, with Imfinzi and Enhertu specifically flagged by leadership as the key drivers heading into 2027. The company has also been an active dealmaker in China-originated science, though its highest-profile 2025–2026 licensing agreements (with CSPC Pharmaceutical) have centered on obesity and chronic-disease pipelines rather than oncology.

4. Johnson & Johnson

  • 2025 Total Oncology sales: $25.38 billion (+22.1%)
  • 2025 total company revenue: $94.2 billion (+6%); Innovative Medicine (pharmaceutical) segment: $60.4 billion
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$610–618 billion
  • Headquarters: New Brunswick, New Jersey

Johnson & Johnson had what CEO Joaquin Duato called a "catapult year" in 2025, and oncology was the single biggest reason why. Darzalex (daratumumab), J&J's multiple myeloma anchor, crossed $14.35 billion in 2025 sales (+23%), while Carvykti — the BCMA-directed CAR-T cell therapy J&J co-develops with Legend Biotech — nearly doubled to $1.89 billion, becoming one of only two J&J products (alongside the cardiovascular device Shockwave) to cross the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2025.

Erleada, J&J's prostate cancer drug, grew 19% to $3.57 billion, while the newer bispecific antibodies Tecvayli and Talvey (both targeting multiple myeloma) and the Rybrevant/Lazcluze combination for EGFR-mutated lung cancer continue to scale. The one soft spot is Imbruvica, down 7% to $2.82 billion as newer BTK inhibitors and generic competition erode a once-dominant leukemia franchise. J&J executives have set an explicit target of becoming the number-one oncology company by 2030, with more than $50 billion in oncology sales — a goal that would require sustained double-digit growth for several more years but is broadly consistent with the trajectory Darzalex and Carvykti have set.

5. Bristol Myers Squibb

  • 2025 oncology & hematology franchise (aggregated): ~$25.0 billion — see note below
  • 2025 total company revenue: $48.2 billion (roughly flat); Growth Portfolio revenue $26.4 billion (+17%)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$131–136 billion
  • Headquarters: Princeton, New Jersey

Unlike AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb does not report a single consolidated "oncology" revenue figure in its earnings releases. Based on its own product-level disclosures, however, its combined oncology and hematology franchise — Opdivo and its subcutaneous line extension Opdivo Qvantig, Yervoy, Reblozyl, Breyanzi, Opdualag, Revlimid, Pomalyst/Imnovid, Sprycel, Abraxane, Abecma, and Krazati — totaled approximately $25 billion in 2025, placing BMS in the same tier as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson despite lacking their scale in total company revenue.

Opdivo (nivolumab) remains the anchor, crossing $10 billion in combined IV-plus-subcutaneous sales for the first time in 2025 (+8%), with management pushing hard to convert 30–40% of the U.S. Opdivo business to the more convenient Qvantig formulation before Opdivo's own patent exclusivity fades later this decade. Newer growth drivers Breyanzi (a CD19-directed CAR-T therapy, up 82% to $1.36 billion) and Reblozyl (up 31% to $2.33 billion) are scaling quickly, and this "Growth Portfolio" collectively rose 17% in 2025.

The other side of the ledger tells a cautionary tale for the entire industry: Revlimid, BMS's former flagship multiple myeloma drug that once generated $12.8 billion a year at its 2021 peak, collapsed 49% in 2025 to just $2.95 billion as Teva's 2025 generic launch and subsequent volume-limited settlement agreements with other manufacturers took hold. Pomalyst (-23%), Sprycel (-62%), and Abraxane (-58%) show similar erosion. BMS's biggest strategic bet for the next decade is a 2026 licensing deal with BioNTech for BNT327, a PD-L1×VEGF bispecific antibody originally developed in China (via BioNTech's acquisition of Biotheus), worth up to roughly $11.1 billion in potential milestone payments — a direct response to Opdivo's own eventual loss of exclusivity.

6. Novartis

  • 2025 Oncology therapeutic area sales: $16.8 billion (+18% actual, +17% cc)
  • 2025 total company net sales: $54.5 billion (+8%)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$293–297 billion
  • Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland

Novartis's oncology turnaround has been driven almost entirely by four drugs. Kisqali, the CDK4/6 inhibitor for breast cancer, grew a remarkable 58% to $4.78 billion in 2025 — with U.S. sales up 77% — as it gained ground in both metastatic and, increasingly, early-stage adjuvant breast cancer, an indication where Novartis believes Kisqali's overall-survival data give it an edge over Eli Lilly's rival Verzenio. Novartis has guided that the broader adjuvant approval could eventually lift Kisqali to more than $8 billion in peak annual sales.

Pluvicto, the lutetium-based radioligand therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, grew 43% to $1.99 billion after a favorable overall-survival readout supported its move into earlier treatment lines. Scemblix, a newer tyrosine kinase inhibitor for chronic myeloid leukemia, nearly doubled (+87%) to $1.29 billion. Older mainstays Tafinlar+Mekinist ($2.22 billion) and Jakavi ($2.11 billion) continue to grow modestly even as the overall company absorbs generic erosion on non-oncology drugs like Entresto and Promacta. Novartis has continued to invest in radiopharmaceuticals as a growth platform, following its earlier acquisition of Mariana Oncology to complement Pluvicto's lutetium-based approach with actinium-based alternatives.

7. Pfizer

  • 2025 Oncology revenue: $16.8 billion (+8%) — about 27% of total revenue
  • 2025 total company revenue: $62.6 billion (-2% reported; +6% excluding Comirnaty/Paxlovid)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$140–145 billion
  • Headquarters: New York, New York

Pfizer's oncology business has quietly become one of the company's most reliable growth engines even as COVID-era vaccine and antiviral revenue continues to fade. Full-year 2025 oncology revenue reached $16.8 billion, up 8%, powered by Padcev (up 15% operationally on expanding first-line bladder cancer use), Lorbrena (up 40% to just over $1 billion, driven by ALK-positive lung cancer), and the Braftovi/Mektovi combination in BRAF-mutant colorectal and melanoma indications (up 18%). Ibrance, once Pfizer's top-selling cancer drug, continues to decline as it approaches its own patent cliff and faces stiff competition from Novartis's Kisqali and Eli Lilly's Verzenio in the CDK4/6 inhibitor class.

Much of this portfolio traces back to Pfizer's $43 billion acquisition of Seagen in late 2023, which brought Padcev, Adcetris, Tukysa, and Padcev's antibody-drug-conjugate technology platform into the fold. Looking ahead, Pfizer has placed a major bet on the same PD-1×VEGF bispecific class driving deals across the industry, striking a roughly $6 billion licensing agreement with China's 3SBio for SSGJ-707, alongside an earlier clinical collaboration pairing Summit Therapeutics' ivonescimab with Pfizer's vedotin-based ADCs across multiple solid tumor types.

8. Eli Lilly

  • 2025 Oncology sales: $9.38 billion (+7%) — about 14% of total revenue
  • 2025 total company revenue: $65.2 billion (+45%, overwhelmingly driven by the $36.5 billion Mounjaro/Zepbound GLP-1 franchise)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): roughly $950 billion–$1.1 trillion — the world's most valuable pharmaceutical company
  • Headquarters: Indianapolis, Indiana

Eli Lilly is best known today for Mounjaro and Zepbound, its tirzepatide-based diabetes and obesity franchise, which alone generated $36.5 billion in 2025 and has made Lilly the most valuable pharmaceutical company on Earth by market capitalization. But oncology remains a meaningful and steadily growing part of the business, and one that is easy to overlook amid the GLP-1 headlines — which is exactly why it earns a spot on this list in place of the long-since-absorbed Celgene franchise from earlier editions of this ranking.

Verzenio (abemaciclib), Lilly's CDK4/6 inhibitor for HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, remains the core of the oncology business at $5.72 billion (+8%), competing directly with Novartis's Kisqali and Pfizer's Ibrance. Jaypirca, a newer BTK-degrader-style agent for mantle cell and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, posted 30% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025 alongside an expanded U.S. indication, while Retevmo (RET inhibitor) continues to build share. Older assets Alimta and Cyramza face continued pressure from immunotherapy combinations. With GLP-1 profits funding an expanding R&D budget, Lilly's oncology pipeline — including next-generation ADCs and targeted agents — is increasingly well capitalized relative to its current revenue base.

Eli Lilly said it will spend up to $7 billion to buy privately held Kelonia Therapeutics for its suite of early-stage cancer treatments. (Investors April 2026)

Kelonia is testing drugs that reprogram specific immune cells, called T cells, inside the body. The goal is to teach those cells to find and attack cancer cells. It builds on already approved CAR-T drugs from Gilead Sciences, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and others.

But these drugs must be tailored to each patient. Kelonia is testing a technology, called in vivo CAR-T, that helps the body build its own CAR-T therapies. Its lead asset, KLN-1010, is in Phase 1 testing for multiple myeloma, an aggressive blood cancer. It also has a handful of preclinical drugs.

Jacob Van Naarden, president of Lilly Oncology, referenced the manufacturing and safety challenges facing traditional CAR-T drugs. These drugs are created using a patient's own T cells, a process that takes weeks. They often cause cytokine release syndrome, or CRS, an inflammatory response to the drugs' impact on the immune system.

"Kelonia's in vivo platform has the potential to change that by delivering rapid, durable responses in a far simpler, off-the-shelf format," Naarden said in a written statement.

The takeover could benefit others in the space. Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger noted that Kelonia has been collaborating with Astellas Pharma since February 2024 and J&J since November 2025. In both cases, the companies are working on in vivo CAR-T drugs.

He also noted this is Lilly's third acquisition in under a year for in vivo tech. The company also bought Verve Therapeutics last June for its in vivo gene-editing platform, and Orna Therapeutics in February for its RNA-focused drugs.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Leonid Timashev says Lilly's takeover highlights Big Pharma's interest in BCMA-directed CAR-T drugs. BCMA is a protein found on almost all multiple myeloma cells. Legend Biotech and J&J have a partnered BCMA-focused CAR-T drug called Carvykti.

While the takeover is for an in vivo CAR-T, the news suggests "there is underappreciated value in the 1st gen CAR-Ts, given LEGN trades at just a ~$4B market cap, despite potential sales of $2.8B in '26 (with peak potential of >$5B according to partner JNJ and ~$8B in our model)," he said.

9. Astellas Pharma

  • FY2025 (April 2025–March 2026) oncology-relevant brand sales (aggregated): ~$8.5–9 billion — Xtandi ¥960.8B (~$6.2–6.4B, +5.3%), Padcev ¥221.2B (~$1.4–1.5B, +34.8%, Astellas's share only), Vyloy ¥63.1B (~$0.4B, +415.6%), Xospata ¥71.8B (~$0.46B, +5.7%)
  • FY2025 total company revenue: ¥2.1 trillion (~$14.2 billion)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$27 billion
  • Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan

Astellas is a far smaller company than the other names on this list, but its oncology franchise punches above its weight, anchored by Xtandi (enzalutamide), the prostate cancer drug it co-markets with Pfizer. Xtandi reached ¥960.8 billion (roughly $6.2–6.4 billion) in Astellas's fiscal year 2025, up 5.3%, which management explicitly described as "reaching projected peak sales levels 13 years after launch." Astellas expects Xtandi's revenue to decline in fiscal 2026 as Inflation Reduction Act price effects begin in January 2027 and patent protection lapses in certain markets — a preview of the same patent-cliff dynamics facing every company on this list.

The far bigger story at Astellas is Vyloy (zolbetuximab), the first Claudin 18.2-targeted therapy to reach the market for gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer. Despite a mid-stage trial setback in pancreatic cancer disclosed in October 2025, Vyloy's core gastric cancer indication has defied expectations, with sales quadrupling to ¥63.1 billion (roughly $400 million) in fiscal 2025 on high Claudin 18.2 testing rates and better-than-expected treatment persistence. Padcev, the Pfizer-partnered ADC for urothelial cancer, also continues to grow strongly following a November 2025 U.S. approval expanding its use to cisplatin-ineligible muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

KRAS G12D inhibitors
Source: OncologyPipeline

10. AbbVie

  • 2025 Oncology portfolio revenue: $6.655 billion (+1.5%)
  • 2025 total company revenue: $61.16 billion (+8.6%)
  • Market cap (Aug 2026): ~$443–449 billion
  • Headquarters: North Chicago, Illinois

AbbVie rounds out the top 10, though oncology remains a distinctly secondary business for a company whose growth is overwhelmingly driven by the immunology franchise Skyrizi and Rinvoq (a combined $25.9 billion in 2025, replacing the patent-expired Humira). Within oncology, Imbruvica continues to decline (-14.3% to $2.87 billion) under pressure from newer BTK inhibitors including Lilly's Jaypirca and AstraZeneca's Calquence, while Venclexta grew a steady 7.9% to $2.79 billion. The real growth is coming from AbbVie's newer, smaller assets: Elahere, the FRα-targeted antibody-drug conjugate for ovarian cancer acquired via the 2024 ImmunoGen deal, grew 44% to $690 million, and the bispecific antibody Epkinly grew 85% to $271 million.

AbbVie has signaled ambitions to grow oncology far beyond its current modest base. At the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in January 2026, the company announced a licensing deal worth up to $5.6 billion with China's RemeGen for a portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates — one of the largest single agreements in the broader wave of Western pharma companies acquiring Chinese-originated oncology assets described in the next section.

The China Licensing Wave: Reshaping Everyone's Pipeline

No discussion of the cancer drug market in 2025–2026 is complete without the single biggest structural shift in oncology dealmaking of the past several years: the rapid rise of Chinese biotech as a source of licensed-out, first-in-class oncology assets. By one industry tracker's count, the total value of cancer-drug out-licensing deals originating from Chinese biotech companies exceeded $15 billion in 2025 alone — up from roughly $1.4 billion just five years earlier in 2020 — and 2026 is on pace to set another record.

The class generating the most attention is the PD-1×VEGF bispecific antibody, a molecule design that combines checkpoint blockade with anti-angiogenic activity in a single agent. The template was set by Akeso's ivonescimab, licensed to U.S.-based Summit Therapeutics in a 2022 deal (expanded in 2025) worth up to roughly $5 billion; Summit filed a U.S. biologics license application for ivonescimab in non-small-cell lung cancer in January 2026. That deal has since been followed by several of the largest agreements on this list:

Buyer Chinese Originator Asset Deal Value (up to)
Bristol Myers Squibb BioNTech (ex-Biotheus) BNT327 (PD-L1×VEGF bispecific) ~$11.1B
Pfizer 3SBio SSGJ-707 (PD-1×VEGF bispecific) ~$6.0B
AbbVie RemeGen ADC portfolio ~$5.6B
Summit Therapeutics Akeso Ivonescimab (PD-1×VEGF bispecific) ~$5.0B
Merck & Co. Kelun-Biotech Seven-ADC portfolio incl. SKB264 ~$9.3B
Roche Innovent Biologics IBI343 (Claudin 18.2 ADC) ~$1.3B

Deal values reflect total potential milestone payments ("biobucks"), not guaranteed payouts; upfront cash payments are typically a small fraction of the headline figure.

Not every asset in this wave has succeeded — Gilead Sciences disclosed a Phase III failure for its own oncology bispecific program (domvanalimab/zimberelimab) in 2025 and saw Trodelvy's ASCENT-07 trial miss in first-line breast cancer, a reminder that in-licensing does not guarantee clinical success. But the sheer volume of capital moving from Western pharma balance sheets to Chinese biotech originators — nearly $16 billion in 2025 alone, per industry trackers — has become one of the defining features of oncology drug development heading into the back half of this decade, and virtually every company on this top-10 list now has at least one major China-originated asset in its pipeline.

Gendicine, the first commercially approved human cancer gene therapy, was approved in China in 2003 for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. It entered the commercial market in 2004. Also known as recombinant human adenovirus-p53 (rAd-p53), is a genetically engineered adenoviral gene therapy developed by Shenzhen SiBiono GeneTech.  The treatment uses a replication-defective adenoviral vector to deliver a functional wild-type TP53 gene. The objective is to restore p53 tumor-suppressor activity in tumor cells.

Related: In June 2026, China approved satricabtagene autoleucel (satri-cel; CT041), making it the first CAR-T cell therapy to receive regulatory approval for a solid tumor. 

Patent Cliff Watch: What Happens After Keytruda

Keytruda's U.S. regulatory exclusivity period, tied to its original September 2014 FDA approval, expired in September 2026 under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act's 12-year exclusivity window — though the drug's underlying composition-of-matter patents are expected to provide protection through roughly 2028, which remains the date most analysts treat as the effective patent cliff. As a large-molecule biologic, Keytruda faces biosimilar competition rather than small-molecule generics, a process that tends to erode sales more gradually than the cliff-edge collapse seen with drugs like Revlimid.

Revlimid's trajectory is the cautionary case study every oncology company is watching closely. Once a $12.8 billion-a-year drug at its 2021 peak, Revlimid's U.S. sales fell roughly 49% in 2025 alone after Teva's generic launch and a series of volume-limited settlement agreements with additional generic manufacturers began stepping up market share, with full open competition expected once remaining restrictions lift. Bristol Myers Squibb has explicitly cited this erosion — alongside a looming loss of exclusivity for its blood thinner Eliquis and, eventually, Opdivo itself — as the reason for its aggressive 2026 investment in next-generation immuno-oncology assets like BNT327.

Every major player on this list is now managing its own version of this transition simultaneously: Merck via Keytruda Qlex's subcutaneous conversion strategy, Pfizer and AbbVie via new CDK4/6 and BTK-inhibitor competition eating into Ibrance and Imbruvica, and Astellas openly guiding to a Xtandi revenue decline in fiscal 2026. The common thread is that no single blockbuster — however dominant — offers permanent protection, which is precisely why the industry-wide scramble for next-generation ADCs and bispecific antibodies described above has become so intense.

2026 Oncology Innovation Matrix

The most important development in oncology is arguably not the competition between individual companies but the convergence of multiple therapeutic platforms.
 

Honorable Mentions (High-Growth Specialists)

  • Iovance Biotherapeutics — TIL (Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte) therapy leader.
  • Arcus Biosciences — next-gen checkpoint targets.
  • ImmunityBio — cytokine-based immunotherapy.
  • BeiGene — PD-1 global expansion.
  • Agenus (AGEN) - Agenus is a leading immuno-oncology company targeting cancer with a comprehensive pipeline of immunological agents. The company was founded in 1994 with a mission to expand patient populations benefiting from cancer immunotherapy through combination approaches, using a broad repertoire of antibody therapeutics, adoptive cell therapies (through MiNK Therapeutics) and adjuvants.
    • Botensilimab (Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4) plus Balstilimab (PD-1 inhibitor) is a next generation immunotherapy combination.

What This Means for Patients

Behind the revenue figures, this level of investment and competition has translated into a genuinely faster pace of new cancer treatment approvals than existed a decade ago. Patients today have access to targeted therapies matched to specific genetic mutations (Tagrisso for EGFR-mutated lung cancer, Kisqali and Verzenio for HR-positive breast cancer), antibody-drug conjugates that deliver chemotherapy directly to tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue (Enhertu, Padcev, Elahere, Trodelvy), cellular therapies engineered from a patient's own immune system (Carvykti, Breyanzi, Yescarta), and an expanding menu of immunotherapy combinations.

The same competitive dynamics also matter directly to affordability. Biosimilar and generic competition — however painful for the companies losing exclusivity — has already meaningfully reduced costs for drugs like Herceptin, Avastin, MabThera/Rituxan, and now Revlimid, and will eventually do the same for Keytruda and Opdivo later this decade. Patients and caregivers navigating treatment decisions should talk with their oncology care team about clinical trial eligibility for newer agents, whether biosimilar alternatives are appropriate for their specific regimen, and what financial assistance programs a given manufacturer offers — most of the companies on this list, including Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Johnson & Johnson, maintain patient assistance foundations for eligible patients facing cost barriers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which company sells the most cancer drugs by revenue?
Merck & Co. is the largest cancer drug company by 2025 oncology revenue, at approximately $35.4 billion, driven almost entirely by Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the world's best-selling prescription drug across any therapeutic category.

What is the best-selling cancer drug in the world?
Keytruda (pembrolizumab), made by Merck, is the best-selling cancer drug and the best-selling drug overall worldwide, with $31.7 billion in 2025 sales.

How big is the global cancer drug market?
According to the IQVIA Institute, global oncology drug spending reached approximately $291 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to roughly $467 billion by 2030, making cancer the largest single therapeutic category in pharmaceuticals.

When does Keytruda go off-patent?
Keytruda's 12-year U.S. regulatory exclusivity period expired in September 2026, but its underlying patents are expected to provide protection until approximately 2028, which is the date most analysts treat as the effective patent cliff for biosimilar competition.

Why are so many U.S. and European drugmakers licensing cancer drugs from Chinese companies?
Chinese biotech companies have become a major source of first-in-class antibody-drug conjugates and PD-1×VEGF bispecific antibodies, often at earlier and less expensive stages of development than comparable Western assets. Cancer-drug licensing deals originating from Chinese companies exceeded $15 billion in total potential value in 2025 alone, involving Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, AbbVie, Roche, and others.

Is Bristol Myers Squibb's Revlimid decline typical of what happens after a cancer drug loses patent protection?
Revlimid's roughly 49% sales decline in 2025 is a particularly steep example because it is a small-molecule drug facing direct generic competition under a structured settlement. Biologic cancer drugs like Keytruda typically face biosimilar competition, which tends to erode sales more gradually than small-molecule generic entry.

Methodology & Disclaimer

Methodology: Rankings are based on each company's own disclosed full-year 2025 (or, for Astellas, fiscal year ending March 2026) financial results, sourced directly from SEC filings, company investor-relations releases, and earnings-call transcripts. Where a company reports a single consolidated "oncology" segment (AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AbbVie), that figure is used directly. Where no such figure exists (Bristol Myers Squibb, Astellas), OneDayMD has aggregated individual product-level disclosures into an estimated oncology total, clearly marked with an asterisk; these aggregated figures involve editorial judgment about which products to include and may differ from figures used elsewhere. Roche reports a combined "Oncology/Haematology" therapeutic area rather than oncology alone; its figure includes both categories. All non-USD figures (Roche in Swiss francs, Astellas in Japanese yen) are converted to approximate USD using exchange rates prevailing during the relevant reporting period and are intended as directional estimates, not precise conversions.

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. Revenue figures, market capitalizations, and company rankings are based on publicly available data as of September 2026 and are subject to change; market capitalization figures in particular fluctuate daily. OneDayMD is not a licensed financial advisor, and nothing in this article should be interpreted as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. Readers are encouraged to verify details independently and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions, and to speak with a qualified oncologist before making any decisions about cancer treatment. OneDayMD is not responsible for losses or damages arising from the use of this information.

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