The Medical Advisor

At first glance, the list of cancer drug makers predicted to head the field by 2024 may not look so different from the list of top-selling cancer drug makers in 2017. The cast of characters is largely the same, and Roche, Celgene and Bristol-Myers Squibb—which took the top three spots last year—are projected by EvaluatePharma to rank 1-2-3 six years from now, too. But the lists themselves don’t tell the whole story, because while Roche, Celgene and Bristol-Myers may be set to retain their top rankings, they can’t say the same for their market share. Look at 2017. The trio of drugmakers together held a 45.8% share of the market, with longtime cancer leader Roche controlling 26.4% all on its own. In 2024, though, market intelligence firm EvaluatePharma expects to see much more parity. The top three’s share will shrink to 26.2%, with Roche’s dropping all the way down to 11.9%. And the No. 2 through No. 5 companies—BMS, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Merck—will boast shares...

With only one of the biopharma industry’s top 20 revenue companies seeing a year-over-year decline in sales, 2024 was a remarkable year of revenue growth for the industry. Compare that to 2023, when eight of the top 20 drugmakers experienced revenue declines. Six of the top 20 drugmakers had double-digit increases in 2024, compared to just two in 2023. Five others saw a revenue bump of between 7% and 9%, compared to two reaching those figures in 2023. For the second year in a row, Eli Lilly (32%) and Novo Nordisk (26%) posted Big Pharma's largest year-over-year sales bumps, though their positions were flipped from 2023 when Novo (31%) topped Lilly (20%). Expect the same form in 2025 as 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 ...