What is the most profitable pharmaceutical ever? (2024)

What is the most profitable pharmaceutical drug ever?

Pharmaceutical Drug, LIPITOR created, marketed, and sold by PFIZER corporation is regarded to be the most profitable drug in the pharma field. While it enjoyed patent protection, the drug generated over $131 billion in sales. Lipitor was released in 1997, the year which saw the FDA allow targeted drug ads.

Once drugs are on the production line, the actual manufacturing costs are tiny compared to often sky-high prices (unlike spacecraft, which are quite expensive to produce). Which explains that 20% profit margin.

1. Pfizer Inc (US) Pfizer is the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company. Its research headquarters are located in Groton, Connecticut, America.

Both, Humira and Lipitor, are the leading drugs by lifetime sales, and will probably keep this position for a while.

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (December 1, 1949 – December 2, 1993) was a Colombian drug overlord. Often referred to as the "World's Greatest Outlaw", Escobar was perhaps the most elusive cocaine trafficker to have ever existed. He is considered the 'King of Cocaine' and is known as the lord of all drug lords.

U.S. top prescribed drugs based on sales 2021

Humira was the top medicine in the United States based on sales in 2021, generating 17.3 billion U.S. dollars in revenue.

The first synthetic drug, chloral hydrate, was discovered in 1869 and introduced as a sedative-hypnotic; it is still available today in some countries.

The five biggest pharmaceutical companies by market cap are Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, AbbVie and Merck.

What pharmaceutical companies are profiting from COVID?

Pfizer alone generated USD 35 billion net profits on its COVID-19 related products during 2021 and 2022. BioNTech and Moderna made USD 20 billion each, while Sinovac pocketed USD 15 billion.

PROFIT PRIMER

A typical independent pharmacy generates more than 90% of its revenues from prescriptions. Here are some basic definitions to clarify the pharmacy profit story: Gross profit equals a pharmacy's revenues minus the cost of products (net of discounts and returns) bought from a manufacturer or a wholesaler.

Johnson & Johnson is the leading Pharma company by market cap in the US (as of Mar 31, 2023). The company reported revenues of $94,943 million for the fiscal year ended January 2022 (FY2022), an increase of 1.2% over FY2021.

Who is Namita Thapar? One of the leading business ladies of India, Namita Thapar is the Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

Aspirin has often been called a wonder drug, partly because it is powerful and effective for many health problems.

Ornstein continued, "It's illegal to give kickbacks to a doctor to prescribe drugs, but it is legal to give money to doctors to help promote your drug. Some doctors make tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year beyond their normal practice just for working with the industry."

The correct answer is PENICILLIN. The antibiotic penicillin is renowned as the "Queen of Medicines." Penicillins (P, PCN, or PEN) are antibiotics that were first discovered in Penicillium moulds, particularly P. chrysogenum and P. rubens.

Pablo Escobar, in full Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, (born December 1, 1949, Rionegro, Colombia—died December 2, 1993, Medellín), Colombian criminal who, as head of the Medellín cartel, was arguably the world's most powerful drug trafficker in the 1980s and early '90s.

druglord. / (ˈdrʌɡˌlɔːd) / noun. a criminal who controls the distribution and sale of large quantities of illegal drugs.

Where does the US get most of its drugs?

The vast majority of brand-name prescription drugs sold in US pharmacies are made overseas and imported by their marketers.

Many Americans and their doctors feel that every symptom or even a hint of a disease requires a drug to treat it. As sad as that sounds, this is the culture we live in. Even health insurance companies find prescriptions the easiest and least expensive way to address a patient's health.

The great majority of adults who have one of five common chronic conditions — diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, and cancer — use prescription drugs.

About gabapentin Brand name: Neurontin

Gabapentin is used to treat epilepsy. It's also taken for nerve pain, which can be caused by different conditions, including diabetes and shingles. Nerve pain can also happen after an injury.

Abstract. Issue: Compared with other high-income countries, the United States spends the most per capita on prescription drugs.

The first modern, pharmaceutical medicine was invented in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, a German scientist. He extracted the main active chemical from opium in his laboratory and named it morphine, after the Greek god of sleep.

Almost 90% of older adults regularly take at least 1 prescription drug, almost 80% regularly take at least 2 prescription drugs, and 36% regularly take at least 5 different prescription drugs.

Here, we rank the top 10 pharma companies by 2021 net income, also known as net earnings or the bottom line. The six largest drugmakers by 2021 revenue—Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche, AbbVie, Novartis and Merck & Co.

The “Big Three”—AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson—dominate the distribution of products in the wholesale (primary care) and generic space, and these companies are increasingly distributing specialty therapies.

Who are the largest drug wholesalers in the US?

About 92 percent of prescription drugs in the United States are distributed through wholesalers, with three — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson Corporation — accounting for more than 90 percent of wholesale drug distribution in the United States.

The Covid pandemic drives Pfizer's 2022 revenue to a record $100 billion. Pfizer sold $37.8 billion of its Covid vaccine last year, a small increase of 3% compared with 2021 as demand for the shots slowed.

Pfizer reported sales of $18.9 billion for the post-infection treatment in 2022. Complicating the guidance for COVID products in 2023, Pfizer explained, was that it's no longer derived from expected deliveries for signed contracts and now includes “anticipated sales through traditional commercial markets in the U.S.”

The FDA has tweaked its emergency use authorization for Pfizer's COVID-19 pill Paxlovid, allowing pharmacists to provide the antiviral treatment to those who have been recently infected and are at risk for progressing to a severe form of the virus.

Prescriptions and More

CVS's pharmacy division is responsible for more than 67% of its revenue.

Average number of prescriptions per pharmacy: 60,493 annually, 194 per day.

Who Is Pfizer's Largest Competitor? Johnson & Johnson is Pfizer's largest competitor. It might not generate as much revenue from its pharmaceuticals, but its market cap and total revenue make it a rival.

Meanwhile in the USA, Pfizer was founded in 1849 by two German immigrants, initially as a fine chemicals business. Their business expanded rapidly during the American civil war as demand for painkillers and antiseptics rocketed.

What is the most used pharmaceutical drug in the world?

Overall, Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the Poonawalla Group, topped the list as the wealthiest healthcare executive in the world. The Poonawalla Group includes the Serum Institute of India, India's top biotech company and the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses, according to Forbes.

The pharma king of the world, India.

Founded by Ron Gold, the former president of Rising Pharmaceuticals, Leading Pharma's mission is to provide safe, affordable, and effective generic pharmaceutical products to its customers.

Mahadeva Lal Schroff: father of Indian pharmacy education.

According to the source, Keytruda is projected to be the top ranked drug worldwide based on sales in 2023, with some 24 billion U.S. dollars.

By far, the largest amounts are devoted to advertising of antineoplastic agents – medicines used in cancer treatment. Bronchial steroids, antivirals, monoclonal antibodies and oral anticoagulants close the list of most advertised drug classes in health journals.

Tagamet was the first billion-dollar drug in the United States.

A blockbuster drug is a very popular drug that generates annual sales of $1 billion or more for the company that sells it. Common blockbuster drugs are Vioxx, Lipitor, and Zoloft. Blockbuster drugs are used for common ailments, such as diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure, and cancer, that many individuals face.

What is the next big drug?

In 2022, Evaluate's most anticipated drug, with estimated 2026 sales worth a huge $6 billion, was Eli Lilly's Alzheimer's drug donanemab. In 2021, Evaluate saw Biogen and Eisai's Alzheimer's drug aducanumab, later approved as Aduhelm, as the top tip in terms of sales, reckoning it could make $4.8 billion in 2026.

Penicillin (1942)

It is estimated that Penicillin has saved between 80 million and 200 million lives and without its discovery and implementation, 75% of people today would not be alive because their ancestors would have succumbed to infection.

The fastest-growing drug problem in the United States isn't cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamines. It is prescription drugs, and it is profoundly affecting the lives of teenagers.

Pfizer's cholesterol pill Lipitor remains the best-selling drug in the world for the fifth year in a row.

Aspirin is used to reduce fever and relieve mild to moderate pain from conditions such as muscle aches, toothaches, common cold, and headaches. It may also be used to reduce pain and swelling in conditions such as arthritis.

Actinium-225 (Ac-225): the rarest drug

Discovered in 1947 simultaneously by two different research teams, Ac-225 undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of 10 days.

According to a study cited by the National Library of Medicine, the price makes Hemgenix the most expensive medicine in the world, easily topping Novartis' Zolgensma gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which costs right around $2 million per dose and is also a single-dose medicine.

Warfarin

They discovered that these cattle were eating a spoiled clover, and their hemorrhaging was subsequently dubbed “sweet clover disease.” About 20 years later, researchers at the University of Wisconsin isolated a compound from the plant, which was later marketed as warfarin.

Top drugs overall.

The top 25 drugs by expenditures for the overall US market in 2021 are shown in Table 3. Adalimumab ($28.5 billion) and apixaban ($15.8 billion) repeated as the number 1 and number 2 drugs, with dulaglutide ($12.2 billion) rounding out the top 3 in 2021.

Who creates the most drugs in the world?

North America (largely the United States) accounts for more than half of the drug patent inventorship, European nations account for one-third of the inventors, and Asian countries account for just over 7%.