Largest Pharmaceutical Companies (2026)

Johnson & Johnson is a New Brunswick, New Jersey, holding company that researches, manufactures and sells health-care products through two segments, Innovative Medicine and MedTech. It heads this ranking with Forbes sales of US$96.4bn, a figure that includes its medical-device business as well as prescription drugs; Forbes classifies the whole group under drugs and biotechnology. The medicines segment covers immunology, infectious diseases, neuroscience, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic disease and pulmonary hypertension, while MedTech sells interventional, orthopaedic, surgical and vision products. In April 2025 Johnson & Johnson completed its acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies, adding the schizophrenia and bipolar-depression treatment Caplyta to its neuroscience portfolio. With profit of US$21.0bn and a market value of US$545.7bn, it is also one of the three most valuable companies in the list.

Roche Holding is a Basel-based research health-care company organised into a Pharmaceuticals division and a Diagnostics division. Forbes lists sales of US$74.1bn, the largest of any company outside the United States in this ranking, and profit of US$15.5bn. The Pharmaceuticals division includes Roche's own business and Chugai, its Japanese subsidiary, while Diagnostics spans centralised and point-of-care testing, molecular diagnostics, tissue diagnostics and diabetes care. The combination means a part of Roche's revenue comes from instruments and tests rather than medicines, which distinguishes it from most of the drug makers below it. Forbes gives the company's founding as 1896, by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, and its workforce as 112,774 employees. Roche reports in Swiss francs, so the dollar sales figure in this list moves with the exchange rate as well as with underlying demand.

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, manufactures and sells medicines in diabetes, oncology, immunology, neuroscience and other areas from its base in Indianapolis, where Forbes records it was founded by Eli Lilly in 1876. Its Forbes sales of US$72.3bn compare with US$45.0bn in the prior-year column, a rise of 60.4% that lifted it from tenth to third place among the companies in this list. No other company in the top 25 grew by more than about 21% on the same basis. Lilly is also the most profitable company here, with US$25.3bn of profit, and the most valuable: Forbes puts its market value at US$946.4bn, more than any other pharmaceutical company and more than the next two companies combined. The growth reflects demand for its diabetes and obesity treatments, a market it shares with Novo Nordisk, which ranks tenth.

Merck & Co., headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, provides prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal-health products,. Forbes records sales of US$65.5bn and profit of US$8.9bn, with a market value of US$275.1bn. Its reporting is split into a Pharmaceutical segment covering human medicines and vaccines, an Animal Health segment for livestock and companion animals, and a residual Other segment. In October 2025 Merck completed the purchase of Verona Pharma for US$107 per American depositary share, a transaction valued at about US$10bn, gaining Ohtuvayre (ensifentrine), a maintenance treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Sales grew 2.8% against the prior-year figure, slower than most peers, and the company slipped from third to fourth place as Lilly overtook it. It is a separate company from Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, which ranks seventeenth.

Pfizer is a research-based biopharmaceutical company headquartered in New York that discovers, develops, manufactures and distributes medicines and vaccines worldwide; Forbes dates it to 1849, when it was founded by Charles Pfizer Sr. and Charles Erhart. Its Forbes sales of US$63.3bn were almost unchanged from the prior-year figure of US$63.6bn, and profit was US$7.5bn. Pfizer has used acquisitions to add new growth areas. In November 2025 it completed the purchase of Metsera for US$65.60 per share in cash, an enterprise value of about US$7.0bn, plus a contingent value right worth up to US$20.65 per share; the main asset is MET-097i, an injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist about to enter Phase 3. The deal gives Pfizer a candidate in the obesity market, where Lilly and Novo Nordisk already sell medicines. Forbes puts its workforce at 75,000.

AbbVie is a research-based biopharmaceutical company in North Chicago, Illinois, that treats chronic autoimmune diseases in rheumatology, gastroenterology and dermatology, as well as cancers, viral infections, neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and other conditions. Forbes records sales of US$62.8bn, up 9.5% on the prior-year figure, which kept it in sixth place. Profit of US$3.6bn gives a margin of under 6%, the lowest among the profitable US companies in the list, while its market value of US$371.7bn is the third highest in the ranking. The gap between modest reported profit and a high valuation reflects non-cash charges and investor expectations rather than operating weakness. Forbes notes the company's founding date as 19 October 2011, before its separation from Abbott Laboratories, which Forbes classifies separately as a medical-equipment company.

AstraZeneca is a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, that discovers, develops and commercialises prescription medicines in oncology, rare diseases and biopharmaceuticals, the latter covering cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease and respiratory and immunology. Forbes records sales of US$60.4bn, 11.8% above the prior-year figure, and profit of US$10.4bn, making it the largest British company in the list. Its market value of US$282.1bn exceeds that of Merck & Co. and Pfizer, which both have higher sales. AstraZeneca employs 96,100 people according to the same dataset. It moved from sixth to seventh place on the prior-year comparison only because Eli Lilly overtook it, and it remains slightly behind AbbVie on sales.

Novartis is a Basel holding company that develops, manufactures and markets health-care products, with a portfolio concentrated on innovative prescription medicines in oncology, immunology, neuroscience and cardiovascular disease. Forbes records sales of US$54.4bn, up 8.2% on the prior-year figure, and profit of US$13.6bn, a margin of almost 25%. Sandoz, a generics company headquartered in Switzerland, appears separately in the Forbes data with sales of US$11.1bn and is not part of Novartis's figures. Novartis remains in eighth position, unchanged from the prior-year comparison. Forbes gives the founding date as 29 February 1996, the date of the merger that created the group, and puts its workforce at 75,267.

Bayer of Leverkusen, Germany, operates in health care and nutrition through three segments: Crop Science, Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Health. Forbes records sales of US$52.4bn and a loss of US$2.5bn, the largest loss in this ranking, and a market value of US$43.1bn, the lowest among the top fifteen. Crop Science sells seeds, plant traits and crop-protection products, so a large share of Bayer's revenue is agricultural rather than pharmaceutical; it is included because Forbes classifies the group as a drugs and biotechnology company. The Pharmaceuticals segment sells cardiology and women's-health products, oncology, haematology, ophthalmology and cell and gene therapy, as well as diagnostic imaging, and Consumer Health sells non-prescription products. Bayer fell from seventh to ninth place on the prior-year comparison, as Eli Lilly and Novartis moved ahead of it.

Novo Nordisk of Bagsværd, Denmark, discovers, develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products through two segments, Diabetes and Obesity Care, and Rare Disease. Forbes records sales of US$50.9bn, 20.8% above the prior-year figure, and profit of US$18.9bn, giving it the highest profit margin in this ranking at 37%. The growth moved it from twelfth to tenth place. Its market value of US$206.9bn is less than a quarter of Eli Lilly's, although both companies sell competing medicines for diabetes and obesity. Forbes traces the company to 1923, when it was founded by Harald and Thorvald Pedersen, and counts 68,794 employees.

Sanofi, headquartered in Paris, researches, produces and distributes pharmaceutical products and now reports a single Biopharma segment that includes specialty care, general medicines and vaccines franchises. Forbes records sales of US$49.2bn, up 10.8% on the prior-year figure, profit of US$5.9bn and a market value of US$103.2bn. The company is France's largest drug maker and keeps eleventh place in this ranking, unchanged from the prior-year comparison. Its vaccines franchise, which includes influenza and paediatric vaccines, competes with GSK, Merck & Co. and Pfizer. Forbes gives its founding year as 1973 and counts 76,493 employees.

Bristol Myers Squibb, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures and sells biopharmaceutical products, including small-molecule drugs, biologics and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cell therapies. Forbes records sales of US$48.5bn, up only 1.8% on the prior-year figure, and profit of US$7.3bn. The slow growth dropped it from ninth to twelfth place as Novo Nordisk and Sanofi overtook it. With 32,500 employees, it runs one of the leaner workforces among the large US drug makers, generating about US$1.5m of sales per employee on Forbes figures. Its market value of US$116.4bn is a little above Sanofi's.

GSK is a British health-care company that researches, develops and manufactures medicines and vaccines, organised into Commercial Operations and Research and Development segments; Commercial Operations has three product groups: specialty medicines, vaccines and general medicines. Forbes records sales of US$43.9bn, up 9.6% on the prior-year figure, profit of US$7.8bn and a market value of US$99.2bn. GSK holds thirteenth place, as in the prior-year comparison. Haleon, a consumer-health company also based in the United Kingdom, is listed separately by Forbes with sales of US$14.5bn and is not included in GSK's figures. GSK and AstraZeneca are the two UK companies in the top 25. Forbes counts 66,841 employees.

Amgen is a biotechnology company in Thousand Oaks, California, that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets human therapeutics; Forbes records its founding on 8 April 1980. Its Forbes sales of US$37.3bn rose 12.2% on the prior-year figure, and profit was US$7.8bn with a market value of US$176.1bn. Amgen is the largest company in the ranking that describes itself as a biotechnology company rather than a pharmaceutical company. It keeps fourteenth place. The company employs 31,500 people, under a quarter of Johnson & Johnson's workforce.

Takeda Pharmaceutical of Osaka researches, develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical drugs through business divisions for gastrointestinal diseases, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies, oncology, vaccines and neuroscience. Forbes records sales of US$29.9bn, 1.1% below the prior-year figure, and profit of US$1.3bn, a margin of just over 4%. It is the largest of the four Japanese companies in the ranking; Forbes records that Takeda Chobei founded it on 12 June 1781. Its plasma-derived therapies division operates in the same field as CSL Behring, part of CSL, ranked twentieth. Market value is US$52.6bn.

Gilead Sciences, headquartered in Foster City, California, researches, develops and commercialises medicines in HIV and AIDS, liver diseases, haematology, oncology, inflammation and respiratory diseases. Its antiviral brands include Genvoya, Descovy, Odefsey, Truvada, Epclusa and Harvoni. Forbes records sales of US$29.8bn, up 3.8%, and profit of US$9.2bn, a margin of about 31%, the fourth highest in this ranking. With 17,000 employees, it generates around US$1.75m of sales per employee, one of the highest ratios among the top 25. Forbes notes the company was founded by Michael L. Riordan on 22 June 1987. Gilead remains in sixteenth position. Its reliance on HIV medicines gives it steady revenue but limited diversification compared with the larger groups.

Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, is a science and technology company operating through Healthcare, Life Science and Performance Materials sectors. Forbes records sales of US$24.3bn, up 6.1%, and profit of US$2.9bn. Only the Healthcare sector, which develops prescription medicines for cancer, multiple sclerosis and infertility, is pharmaceutical; Life Science sells laboratory materials, technologies and services, and the materials business supplies specialty chemicals. Forbes records the company as founded by Friedrich Jacob Merck in 1668, the earliest founding date of any company in this ranking. It is a separate company from Merck & Co. of the United States, ranked fourth. It employs 62,461 people.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, headquartered in Tel Aviv, develops, produces and sells medicines, and reports by geography: United States, Europe and International Markets. In the United States it sells a central-nervous-system portfolio and distributes generic, biosimilar and over-the-counter products to pharmacies, hospitals and physicians. Forbes records sales of US$17.4bn, up 5.2%, and profit of US$1.6bn. Teva is the largest generic-medicines company in this ranking; Viatris, ranked twenty-second, and Sandoz, which is outside the top 25, both have smaller sales. It is the only Israeli company in the top 25 and keeps eighteenth position. Forbes gives its founding year as 1901 and counts 33,346 employees.

Otsuka Holdings is the Tokyo holding company of a group whose segments are Pharmaceuticals, Nutraceuticals, Consumer Products and Others. The pharmaceuticals segment makes therapeutic drugs and infusions focused on the central nervous system, oncology and infectious diseases, while nutraceuticals include nutritional foods, health drinks and supplements, and consumer products include mineral water and beverages. Forbes records sales of US$16.7bn, up 8.6%, and profit of US$2.5bn, a margin of 15%. The holding company was formed on 8 July 2008, according to Forbes, which counts 37,758 employees. Otsuka is the second-largest Japanese company in this ranking, ahead of Astellas and Daiichi Sankyo, though behind Takeda.

CSL of Melbourne manufactures, markets and distributes biopharmaceutical products through three segments: CSL Behring, CSL Seqirus and CSL Vifor. CSL Behring provides plasma products, gene therapies and recombinant products; CSL Seqirus sells mainly influenza vaccines and provides pandemic services to governments; and CSL Vifor distributes products for iron deficiency and nephrology. Forbes records sales of US$15.3bn, up 1.1%, and profit of US$1.4bn. It is the only Australian company in the top 25. CSL Behring works in the same plasma-derived therapies field as Takeda. Forbes counts 29,000 employees and a market value of US$33.6bn.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company in Tarrytown, New York, that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercialises medicines including Dupixent, Eylea, Kevzara, Evkeeza and Inmazeb. It uses its proprietary VelociSuite technologies, including VelocImmune genetically humanised mice, to produce fully human and bispecific antibodies. Forbes records sales of US$14.9bn, up 5.1%, and profit of US$4.4bn, a margin near 30%. Regeneron moved from twenty-second to twenty-first place, overtaking Viatris. Forbes records its founding on 8 January 1988 and counts 15,410 employees, with a market value of US$73.2bn, more than CSL, Teva or Viatris.

Viatris, based in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, provides medicines across cardiovascular, oncology, dermatology, eye care, gastroenterology, immunology and women's health, and reports through Developed Markets, Greater China, JANZ (Japan, Australia and New Zealand) and Emerging Markets segments. Forbes records its founding in November 2020, making it the youngest company in the list. Sales were US$14.6bn, 0.7% lower than the prior-year figure, and the company reported a loss of US$296.5m. It slipped one place to twenty-second, behind Regeneron. Its market value of US$19.2bn is the lowest in the ranking. Forbes counts 32,000 employees.

Astellas Pharma of Tokyo researches, develops, manufactures, imports and exports pharmaceutical products; its products include Xtandi, Padcev, Xospata, Vyloy, Veozah, Izervay, Evrenzo, Betanis and Prograf. Forbes records sales of US$14.2bn, up 13.2%, and profit of US$1.9bn. It is the third Japanese company in the ranking. Forbes gives the company's founding as April 1923, by Kenji Yamanouchi. Its product list mixes established medicines such as Prograf with more recent launches such as Vyloy, Veozah and Izervay. Its market value is US$26.3bn.

Daiichi Sankyo of Tokyo researches, develops, manufactures and sells pharmaceuticals; its products include the antibody-drug conjugate trastuzumab deruxtecan as well as edoxaban, prasugrel and mirogabalin. Forbes records sales of US$14.1bn, up 13.9%, the third-fastest growth in this ranking after Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, and profit of US$1.7bn. Forbes gives 2005 as the founding year and puts the market value at US$29.5bn. Its product list is weighted toward oncology, alongside the anticoagulant edoxaban and the pain medicine mirogabalin.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a Boston biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercialises small-molecule drugs for serious diseases, with a principal focus on cystic fibrosis. Forbes records sales of US$12.3bn, up 12.4%, and profit of US$4.3bn, a margin of 35%, second only to Novo Nordisk in this ranking. With 6,400 employees it is the smallest workforce in the list, and it produces more sales per employee (about US$1.9m) than any other company in the top 25. Its market value of US$110.9bn is higher than those of GSK and Sanofi, both of which have more than three times its sales. Forbes records it as founded by Joshua S. Boger in 1989.