New research on the Top 25 pharma companies by market capitalization

The performance highlights of the Top 25 publicly traded global pharmaceutical companies by Market Cap (Mcap) for the quarter ended June 30, 2018 (Q2), compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2018 (Q1), have been analyzed in the latest research from GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The top 25 pharmaceutical companies collective Mcap reached around $2.7 tn, growing marginally at 1.1% in Q2 2018 with leading companies Merck US, Bayer, GSK, Eli Lilly, CSL and Shire achieving double digit Mcap growth during the same period.

J&J maintained its No.1 position in the Top 25 with Chinese pharmaceutical company, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, entering the list during the period.

Six of the top 25 companies experienced positive Mcap growth in Q2 2018, with CSL, Shire and Bayer achieving double digit growth rates of 24%, 20% and 16%, respectively.

The Mcap of BMS and Celgene declined over 10% in Q2 2018. Institutional investors in BMS traded a substantial amount of shares in the period which is thought to have impacted their Mcap performance while setbacks in some key pipeline drugs affected Celgene’s Mcap value.

There were plenty of new developments and market activity during Q2 2018, reflecting a growing trend among the big pharma companies to focus on their core business areas. BMS announced its intention to sell its French consumer health business, P&G acquired Merck KGaA’s vitamin brands; GSK bought the consumer healthcare joint venture from Novartis for $13bn and Pfizer announced plans to divest its European generic-drug business.

In geographical terms, North America contributed an aggregate Mcap of $1.5tn, with 13 companies from this region featuring in the top 25 list. The Mcap of European and Asia-Pacific (APAC) pharmaceutical companies grew 3.2% and 16.5% respectively during the period.

More information on report can be seen on GlobalData site.