Roche misses the long-standing sales leader Pfizer

Changing of the guard in the pharmaceutical industry: According to an investigation by the consulting firm EY, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Stock Exchange Chart show has thrown the US giant Pfizer Stock Exchange Chart show.

In the ranking of the 21 companies examined, Roche displaced long-term number one Pfizer from the top in terms of sales in 2019. The Americans came in second, followed by Johnson & Johnson in third. As in previous years, the German manufacturers found themselves at the bottom: Bayer came in 15th and Boehringer Ingelheim in 17th place. The Darmstadt-based pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals group Merck KGaA was again at the bottom.

EY also took a close look at the latest developments in the pharmaceutical industry after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Worldwide, pharmaceutical companies are racing to find a vaccine or an effective therapy for the new lung disease Covid-19.

According to the EY investigation, the pharmaceutical industry quickly produced 161 vaccine candidates and 242 therapeutic test agents by early June. In addition, more than 700 corona tests have been developed or have already been launched on the market, according to EY. These numbers changed almost daily. According to the study authors, only a fraction of the product candidates actually have a chance to enter the market.

Pandemic affects M&A activities in the pharmaceutical industry

97 percent of the currently tested vaccines should not see the light of day, said biotech and transaction expert Alexander Nuyken from EY. "In the end, there are three to four preparations left over among the therapeutic agents that are used." A lot of money is therefore invested in vain in the search because there is "no guarantee for a safe and effective vaccine or active ingredient".

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According to many industry experts, the winner of this race can expect billions in profits. Biotech and transaction expert Nuyken sees this similarly: For a company that ended up with a vaccine, this would become a "game changer", meaning a groundbreaking change in the rules of the game, he emphasized.

According to EY expert Siegfried Bialojan, nothing is likely to change in the long-term research plans of large corporations outside of Corona, although infections and antibiotic resistance are currently the focus of attention.

However, the pandemic is already affecting takeover and merger activity in the industry, Nuyken said. Many deals would be put on hold because there is currently too much uncertainty on the part of buyers and sellers and therefore also disagreement about the price. "The companies are currently waiting to see what it looks like after the summer break."

Rising spending on vaccine and drug discovery

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According to EY, the pharmaceutical industry had intensified its research efforts even before Corona in 2019. Compared to the biotech companies, which are already strong in research, "Big Pharma" was under great pressure to innovate. As in the past, the focus of development was on cancer therapies, which are considered to be particularly lucrative. Sixteen of the twenty-one companies examined increased their spending on research and development. Overall, expenditure rose by 14.2 percent, after a decrease of 1.9 percent in the previous year.

A look at the business development in 2019 shows why many companies invest in cancer research: "Big Pharma" generated the largest sales in oncology - the growth was one fifth. Overall, thanks to the introduction of new active ingredients, sales in the industry grew almost double-digit in percentage terms last year.