Where in the World are Major Pharmaceuticals?

Hands down the most global companies in the pharmaceutical industry are the largest companies. These large Companies include Pfizer Inc., Merck and Co. Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and GlaxoSmithKline.

As demonstrated by Pfizer India is a growing player in the pharmaceutical industry. Recently Pfizer contracted with an India based company to help commercialize its products for once they lose patents. Pfizer is also in the possession of almost 80 manufacturing plants around the world (some of those due overlap in geographic region due to Pfizer’s acquisition of other companies and will most likely seize to exist in the near future). Like with most companies the U.S. is still the companies largest market thanks to our property laws and large population. At the same time though, Pfizer’s international sales have been growing to now include revenues of over half a billion dollars in 14 countries.

For Merck the portion of its revenue coming from the U.S. has continued to drop over the past fiver years. In 2007 U.S. sales represented over 60 percent of their revenue in 2011 it has dropped to a little over 55 percent. This shows an increased value in its international markets. Currently they have employees in 120 countries and 31 factories worldwide. At the same time they are expanding into markets in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Johnson & Johnson have operations in 57 countries and sell their products in over 170 countries. In the second quarter of 2011 international sales were up almost 16 percent. 50 percent of their sales are international and 43 percent of their operating profits came from overseas. Europe accounted for 25 percent of sales and 29 percent of operating profit and Africa/Asia accounted for 16 percent of sales and 7 percent of operating profit.

GlaxoSmithKline has 79 manufacturing sites in over 38 countries. Furthermore they have offices in over 100 countries with major research centers the UK, USA, Belgium and China. They delivered vaccines to over 179 countries in 2010. Major markets for GSK include the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany. While most of its revenue in recent years has come from these major established markets it continues to look at new markets to expand into. Currently GSK is looking at the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Even with the major countries penetrating overseas problems still remain. The problem is, as previously discussed in other posts, the importance of patents in the industry. If other nations do not protect the intellectual property rights of the companies there is little incentive for them to go over seas. Because of this most companies have stuck with established western markets that have strong intellectual property protection laws. One solution to this problem has been the increased number of free trade agreements that include reinforcing intellectual property protection.

Sources

http://clients.ibisworld.com.proxyau.wrlc.org/industryus/Majorcompanies.aspx?indid=487#MP351859

http://www.gsk.com/about/company.htm

http://www.jnj.com/connect/news/financial/johnson-and-johnson-reports-2011-second-quarter-results