FierceBiotech’s top 10 stories of the year: Mergers, cuts and setbacks

by Ben Adams

We all love a top 10: It serves as a definitive "best of the best," and sometimes a look at the top of the chart can reflect the state of an industry.

Looking back at our most-read stories shows our readers certainly like a broad range of news and features: This year, for the first time I believe, a CRO story topped our charts. It's indicative of the kind of noise the contract research industry has been making over the past few years.

Our top story, by a clear margin, was the merger of INC Research and inVentiv Health, making the pair worth around $7.4 billion in May when the deal was announced. This came around a year after Quintiles and IMS Health came together in their massive $19 billion megamerger, and at a time when Big Pharma-biotech deals have been a little sparse, to say the least.

The second largest story is less surprising, as it’s all about cuts and reorgs, and it was Shire’s change up that saw readers come to the site in tens of thousands. The biopharma said it wasn’t expecting any major staffing cuts, but closure of some sites are in the cards. This all comes after some big buys for the company, and an attempt to bring closer together its R&D operations.

The third was something of a theme in 2017: R&D “consolidation”, or in this case, GlaxoSmithKline’s new chief Emma Walmsley looking to make a statement in research by wielding the ax to dozens of pipeline meds and putting its rare disease work in the crosshairs.

Then we come to our special features: FierceBiotech’s Fierce 15 2017, and the top pharma R&D budgets for last year. This year’s crop of Fierce 15 ranged across cancer, rare disease and neuroscience, with all vying to be big hitters in the race to be a next-gen biomedical company.

The top pharma R&D budgets, meanwhile, saw Roche and Novartis top the list of big spenders, with the average top 10 pharma seeing 17% of its total revenue going into R&D, with a combined $70 billion being spent across the top 10. Stay tuned for our top ten early next year, and we’re already on the look out for the next crop of early-stage biotechs for Fierce 15 2018.

Our sixth most read story of 2017 was AbbVie’s positive phase 3 psoriasis data on its potential blockbuster risankizumab, scoring a big win against its own major blockbuster Humira, as well as Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara. AbbVie is gunning for other inflammation indications as it looks to try and head off some of the losses it will rack up from Humira biosimilars, with revenue expected from 2019.

Number seven centered on President Donald Trump’s potential NIH director pick Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, CEO of I-O biotech NantKwest, who was rumored to have been the best paid CEO in the world. In the end, this didn’t happen of course. In fact, Soon-Shiong had a pretty bad year after a series of investigations from healthcare news site STAT alleged that he donated millions of dollars to philanthropic causes, which later circled back to his company. A promotional video for one its pipeline meds also drew ridicule on Twitter.

Meanwhile, STAT’s senior writer Adam Feuerstein, via the power of the poll, named Soon-Shiong the worst biopharma CEO of 2017.

In at number eight was an unusual story about biotech Acerta, bought up by AstraZeneca, which it turns out faked some early preclinical data for its drug acalabrutinib. AstraZeneca admitted the falsification in the fall, after a story from Retraction Watch, blaming a “former Acerta employee who acted alone.”

This got a lot of views, but did not upset the apple cart for AZ, as acalabrutinib was in fact approved by the FDA just a few weeks later as Calquence for certain blood cancers.

Number nine was related to the drawn-out saga of Elizabeth Holmes and her beleaguered Theranos. We ran many stories on this for FierceMedTech, but the most viewed was the fact that it turned out Holmes was $25 million in debt to her own company. This was found out by the Wall Street Journal, which has spent years investigating the company.

And finally, we have the tenth most viewed story of 2017: The FDA’s rejection of Amgen and UCB’s application for approval of osteoporosis candidate romosozumab, coming off of a safety scare, notably on potential cardiovascular adverse events.

Check out your top 10 below:

1. INC Research and inVentiv Health merge in another major CRO deal
2. Shire will cut U.S. locations and move HQ in consolidation push
3. GlaxoSmithKline stops development of 30 pipeline prospects, mulls sale of rare disease unit as new CEO Walmsley makes her mark
4. FierceBiotech's 2017 Fierce 15
5. The top 10 pharma R&D budgets in 2016
6. AbbVie’s risankizumab blows away aging rivals in phase 3
7. Donald Trump considers NantKwest CEO for NIH chief
8. AstraZeneca buy Acerta faked cancer drug data, company admits
9. WSJ: In a twist, Holmes owes Theranos $25M
10. Safety scare prompts FDA to reject Amgen’s romosozumab

Top 10 Pharmaceutical Companies 1997-2017

The list of the best pharmaceutical companies has evolved significantly over the last 20 years. In this analysis revenues were taken into consideration to rank the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in respective year. The animation will provide you with an overview of the history of the pharmaceutical industry over the past two decades.

For a detailed analysis of the most recent ranking you can read Top10 Pharmaceutical Companies 2017

Sources: Annual reports, SEC filings, Press releases, Company websites

Thinking Outside The Box

In digital, it’s all about personalization. Isn’t it time pharma caught up with other industries?

By Adam Chapman

Soon, the pharma industry will face a stern ultimatum – diversify or die. The internet – that majestic marketplace of ideas – has been busy empowering consumers through unfettered access to information and services. Now that customers know what they want (and when they want it), holding their hold their attention means tracking and reacting to the minutiae of their online movements. 

This sophisticated idea is at the center of Volkswagen’s marketing model, says Adel Baraja, Sales and Marketing Consultant at Volkswagen, who believes a high level of personalization will provide exponential growth in the pharma industry.

“Marketing channels like outdoors, out-of-home, pay-view or TV deliver one message that aims to suit everybody,” he says. “In digital, we are trying to give our customers or prospects a totally different message.”

It’s mass media but it’s also custom, he says. “We highlight people's interests, from either their browsing behavior or online habits, and we identify the people in the marketplace who want to buy a car. In a way, it’s not invasive at all; Netflix or Amazon make suggestions based on books read or programs watched in a similar way.” 

In tracking a customer’s online activity, connectedness is the starting point, says Baraja. “We are looking for the connected customer, people that use their phone or multiple devices to get online. Those are the ones that are always searching, always looking up items – recipes, advice, do-it-yourself guides.”

Where does Volkswagen mine this data? “We work with multiple agencies and service providers, who gather and analyze all this big data. We do not have to do it manually, we can’t even see them – the data or the people – as it's anonymous. We just know that they have set the criteria that we are looking for,” he says.

Pooling data from third-parties can provide a general overview of behavioral patterns, then Volkswagen uses sophisticated metrics to tailor its message to each individual visitor on its website. “We know how these customer are coming in, for example, if they clicked on a banner, but we also know now – through advanced algorithms – that somebody browsing a website has an attention span of eight seconds – that’s less than a goldfish. They get distracted by another website or by a TV set and they leave your website,” says Baraja.

Many marketers would give up at this point – after all, they’ve served the ad, had a click and a visit, and formed a bond. “We keep connecting to that same client; we might be able to serve him a different ad. If he has seen the exterior of the car, we serve him another ad inviting him to see the interior,” he says, adding that if a customer leaves the website midway through customizing a car, a third ad can then be deployed on a third-party website asking them to come back and complete the customization. “The whole idea is to re-target the same customer again and again because they are the highest potential, rather than focusing on a new one with the least potential.” 

Baraja rejects the idea that this approach would not work in pharma. “A lot of people say: If people are healthier, pharmaceutical companies are going to lose money. But look at cooking shows; chefs show you their recipe and they show you how to make the food, but you will still go to the restaurant to eat it. It doesn't mean that if you are being helpful, showing them how to be healthy, people will stop coming back to you. They know you, you will become the one they take advice from, they will listen to you. If you throw anything at them they will buy it because they trust you.”

The right attitude and internal awareness are essential to successfully implement a personalized digital strategy. The increasing ubiquity of the digital world must be mirrored by the marketing strategy, he says. “Digital is no longer a separate strategy to the sales strategy, conventional marketing strategy or branding strategy. It is one strategy that takes a different direction, developing and evolving.”

The impact across the organization requires a top to bottom understanding, he says. “Marketing has become involved in IT – there is a lot of software and processes involved and it will continue to become more sophisticated. We will always have a CEO that understands where both digital and marketing is going. A CEO that also supports the vision and understands this is the requirement,” says Baraja.

Top 20 Drugs in the World 2017

Luca Dezzani, MD


The global prescription drug market is expected to grow by 6% from 2016 to 2022 to reach nearly USD 1.05 trillion by 2022. The top 20 drugs are manufactured by 14 companies and account for a total 10% of global prescription drug market in 2016. The total revenue generated by top 20 products was estimated to be USD 0.128 trillion. A large number of the drugs in the list are primarily for the treatment and management of cancer, diabetes, inflammatory disorders, and HIV or HCV infections. A report by Reuters predicts an average of 45 new drug launches each year henceforth, and suggests that the rising costs will be partially offset by a higher level of drugs going off patent, including the anticipated effect of biosimilars entering the market.

1. Humira (Adalimumab): Indicated in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and moderate to severely active rheumatoid arthritis. It tops the prescription-drug list of 2016 with an annual growth of 15% accounting for USD 16 billion sales globally. Humira is manufactured by AbbVie Inc. (U.S.). The patent for this product expired in 2016 in the U.S. and will expire by 2018 in Europe creating competitive opportunities for biosimilars market.
2. Harvoni (Ledipasvir/sofosbuvir): this product from Gilead Sciences is indicated in treating HCV/HIV infection. It is the second most prescribed drug in the market accounting for revenue of USD 9 billion. Wide patent range will aid the company’s overall growth which may be partially offset by the declining growth of -34% of this product from 2015-2016.  
3. Enbrel (Etanercept): It is another drug indicated for autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and other inflammatory conditions. It is co-marketed by Amgen Inc. in the U.S. and Pfizer Inc. in Europe. Pfizer also has a co-promotion agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. to market Enbrel in Japan. The product holds 3rd position in the prescription drug list.
4. Rituxan (Rituximab, MabThera): Biogen and Roche co-markets the product indicated in the treatment of cancer. The patent for this product expired in 2015 which may result in significant decrease in sales. The product currently holds 4th position in the prescription drug market due to high revenues and growth of nearly 3%.
5. Remicade (Infliximab): indicated for autoimmune diseases and produced by J&J and Merck, Remicade sales decline by 11% in 2016 compared to 2015 sales. In February 2015, the Company lost market exclusivity for Remicade in major European markets and no longer has market exclusivity in any of its marketing territories. The Company is experiencing pricing and volume declines in these markets as a result of biosimilars competition and expects the declines to continue.
6. Revlimid (Lenalidomide): This is produced by Celgene and the revenues have increased by over 20%, from 2015. The product is indicated for the treatment of multiple myloma and will go off patented in 2027, which makes it an extremely important product in the company’s portfolio. The product holds 6th position in the prescription drug market.
7. Avastin (Bevacizumab): manufactured by Roche Avastin is used for advanced colorectal, breast, lung, kidney, cervical and ovarian cancer, and relapsed glioblastoma. Sales continued to grow strongly in the International region (+18%), especially China, following the approval of the lung cancer indication.
8. Herceptin (Trastuzumab): Another product manufactured by Roche, used for treating cancer mainly breast and gastric. Herceptin sales were up 4%, helped by additional reimbursement approvals in China and continued growth in the US due to longer duration of treatment in combination with Perjeta.
9. Januvia/Janumet (Sitagliptin): This product is used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Merck manufactures the product and the worldwide sales were estimated to be USD 6.1 billion in 2016, an increase of 2% compared with 2015. Sales growth was driven primarily by higher volumes in the United States, Europe and Canada, partially offset by pricing pressures in the United States and Europe, and lower sales in Venezuela due to the Company’s reduced operations in that country.
10. Lantus (Insulin glargine): A long-acting human insulin analog produced by Sanofi. The revenues from Lantus stood at USD 6.05 billion in 2016, a decline of 11% from the previous year. The U.S. patent for the product expired in August 2014. It was once one of the top-selling diabetes product in the world.
11. Prevnar 13/ Prevener (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine): the decline in Prevnar 13/Prevenar 13 revenues, primarily driven by an expected decline in revenues for the adult indication in the U.S. due to a high initial capture rate of the eligible population following its successful fourth-quarter 2014 launch, which resulted in a smaller remaining opportunity window compared to the prior-year, as well as the unfavorable impact of the timing of government purchases for the pediatric indication (down approximately USD 450 million).
12. Xarelto (Rivaroxaban): This anti-coagulant from Bayer and J&J has the highest growth rate within the top-20 prescription drug list of around 27%. It aids in the reduction of the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation; deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), and reduction in the risk of recurrence of DVT and of PE.
13. Eylea (Aflibercept): It is produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Bayer. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in retinal indications, delivered U.S. net sales growth of 24.2% over 2015, and continues to be the market-leading branded anti-VEGF therapy in the United States. The global growth rate was estimated by 27% from 2015-16.
14. Lyrica (Pregabalin): It is an anti-epileptic from Pfizer Inc. The product grew by 3% from 2015-2016 reaching USD 5 billion. The patent for Lyrica is set to expire in 2018, which will very likely ensure high sales figures for the product till the end of that period. It is mostly indicated in neuropathic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy; postherpetic neuralgia; fibromyalgia; and pain associated with spinal cord injury.
15. Neulasta/ Peglasta and Neupogen / Gran (Pegfilgrastim and Filgrastim): Neulasta is a recombinant human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) from Amgen and Kyowa Hakko Kirin. It is used to decrease the incidence of infection during cancer treatment. The U.S. patent for the product expired in June 2015. The revenues of the product stood at USD 4.7 billion in 2016, reduced by 1% from the previous year.
16. Advair /Seretide (Fluticasone and Salmeterol): Advair is indicated for asthma and maintenance treatment of COPD. The product’s revenues stood at USD 4.3 billion in 2016. The sales of the product declined by 5% between 2015 and 2016 and 13% between 2014 and 2015. The sales are expected to decline further after the U.S. patent expiry in 2016.
17. Copaxone (Glatiramer acetate): It is a subcutaneous injection formulation for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The product’s patent expired in 2014. Copaxone accounted for USD 4.2 billion (including $3.5 billion in the U.S.), or 19% of Teva Pharmaceuticals revenues in 2016, and contributed a significantly higher percentage to profits and cash flow from operations during the period.
18. Sovaldi (Sofosbuvir): It is an oral formulation, dosed once a day for the treatment of HCV as a component of a combination antiviral treatment. Sovaldi sales accounted for 14%, 17% and 45% of our total antiviral product sales for 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. In 2016, product sales were USD 1.9 billion in the United States, USD 891 million in Europe, USD 635 million in Japan and USD 580 million in other international locations.
19. Tecfidera (Dimethyl fumarate): Manufactured by Biogen, this drug is used for treating multiple sclerosis. The product shows growth of 9% over the previous year, primarily due to price increases and higher sales volume in U.S. and expansion of the product launch in emerging markets across the globe.
20. Opdivo (Nivolumab): It represents the major part of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s immune-oncology portfolio, accounting for USD 3.8 billion out of USD 5 billion of the segmental revenues. It is a fully human monoclonal antibody that has been approved and continues to be investigated as an anti-cancer treatment. U.S. and international revenues increased in both periods due to higher demand resulting from the rapid commercial acceptance for several indications including melanoma, head and neck, lung, kidney and blood cancer.

The Non-Pharma Pharma Company?

Pharma’s commercial model is rapidly evolving. But where will it be in twenty years’ time?

By Danielle Barron

Across all industries, consumers are demanding more and companies are responding, adapting their commercial models in efforts to meet their customers’ evolving needs.

Pharma is not immune to these wider changes and most companies are actively rethinking the traditional model to ensure they can compete in an increasingly multi-channel, multi-stakeholder environment.

Healthcare is going through an “amazing transformation process” driven by new media, says Tim Kneen, Executive President at Merck. “The standard pharma business model of high volume, get access, make as much noise as possible will not be relevant going forward,” he says. “Across all industries, the most successful companies offer solutions that reflect the individual needs of their customers, but especially those that recognize these needs before the customer does.”

Seismic shifts

There are three “mega trends” in healthcare at present, says Kneen – the delivery of outcomes, personalized treatment and customer engagement. Addressing each will be critical to pharma’s successful evolution.

“Healthcare is shifting from acute medicine to health management, which includes determining susceptibility to certain diseases and early interventions that improve health outcomes. The focus is shifting beyond innovative drug – right now, the best possible outcome is that the patient takes the drug as directed but, with chronic disease, lifestyle intervention can often have bigger impact than drugs themselves.”

Pharma must think seriously about extending its offering through innovative devices and patient support programmes, he says, pointing to Merck’s Rebismart, a connected device that complemented MS therapy Rebif.

“Not only can we collect information on adherence but we can see the impact of the drug in terms of quality of life,” says Kneen. “This means physician and patient can have a discussion based on data, which essentially transforms the interaction to improve outcomes.”

With personalized treatment, the use of molecular markers and advanced algorithms can help companies to identify those patients who would benefit the most from treatments. He points to Merck’s use of Crispr genomic technology for gene editing as an example, but looking more widely asks who will pay for such approaches in the short-to-medium-term.

His third megatrend is customer engagement. “Patients have unparalleled access to health information, and pharma has to respond to this changing reality. Requirements for engaging with healthcare organisations are radically shifting and pharma is constantly seeking compliant ways to engage with patients.”

Commercial teams have changed hugely over the past 20 years, he says, when pharma was based on a large monolithic sales model with commercial teams tasked to see as many doctors as possible and disseminate promotional materials. Such a single channel model of face-to-face interaction is as good as obsolete, he says, while multichannel selling is essential.

“Historically, the commercial model was repetitive and lacking differentiation, with little guideline influence, for example. The past decade has seen dramatic change; now, multiple stakeholders are involved in treatment decisions and patients are key decision-makers, in addition to physicians, guidelines, HTA, payers, and government, among others,” says Kneen.

“With an increasing number of stakeholders involved in treatment choice, commercial roles have multiplied and diversified, while traditional back-office functions have become customer-facing. Key account management to tailor the right information to the right customer is a critical component.”

Enabled by digital, information now flows through multiple channels, moving beyond face-to-face to social media and remote calls, for example. “It is bi-directional and continuous,” he says. “Now, we can listen and learn, we can provide information as it is required, and this makes a massive impact on how we function as commercial entity now and in the future.”

Integrate or die?

Amid such change, much discussion and debate has revolved around whether the sales and marketing functions should be more integrated, given the undoubted benefits.

GSK is one company that is re-evaluating traditional ways of working, moving into a more cross-functional approach to delivering customer value. “Our aim is to deliver an exceptional customer experience through an integrated approach across sales, marketing, medical and market access.  This includes everything from capability building and benchmarking to business planning and execution on the ground,” says Colleen Schuller, Vice President, Global Head of Selling Excellence.

The company now has joined-up teams that look after multichannel marketing and launch excellence, selling excellence, medical excellence and market access capabilities, she adds. “What is most critical here is to be crystal clear on the strategy and how cross-functional teams will work together to deliver value for both health care professionals and patients,” says Schuller.

For Laurie Gery, Head of Commercial Operations at Sanofi Pasteur, integration means education. “We need to make people understand the value of what they bring to the commercial plan – then integration will happen more seamlessly because you are automatically aligning objectives. Integration means fewer head count but it also means that sales gets more complex. It is a matter of mindset and not who is reporting to whom.”

Sales and marketing must be “reinvented” into a seamlessly integrated, commercial outfit, says the Head of Commercial Excellence for a top 10 pharmaceutical company who wishes to remain anonymous.

Ultimately, a successful integration will be based on trust, he says. “The equation for trust is credibility plus reliability plus empathy. Often when it comes to a bad leader, one of these is missing in their role or they have all these components but everything is eroded by self-interest. You have to continually be doing things to build that trust, to ensure it is not eroded.”

A key element is to identify ‘them’ as something external, not sales versus marketing, he says. “It sounds like a minor thing, but it has a big impact on performance.”

Running a digital marathon

Digital underpins the metamorphosis of the current commercial model, with next-generation pharma adopting a multichannel selling model to reach plugged-in patients and healthcare professionals.

Pharma needs to become better at selling in a multichannel world, says GSK’s Schuller. “Reps need to become better at facilitating peer-to-peer dialogue, better at selling using the iPad, and better at virtual detailing. This will help take the sales force into the future.”

For Bogdan Rakitskiy, ‎Associate Director of Commercial and Business Excellence at Teva, pharma must become “efficient in digital strategies through the transformation of the commercial team into powerful skilled contributors. This is the hottest topic across all industries, not just the pharmaceutical industry. Proper management and implementation could bring a quick win in our fast-changing market.”

Building a cross-functional team, with buy-in from employees, is critical. Rakitskiy cites a personalized digital multichannel campaign run internally that aimed to engage 10 percent of employees that in fact reached closer to 50 percent, demonstrating that the staff are willing.

“Modern commercial teams are running an endless marathon of digital transformation,” he says. “We need to give our employees this new knowledge and skills.” A digital manager is necessary for overseeing this process, acting as the ‘coach’ of the cross-functional team, offering skills, support, coordination and communication.

One critical issue for pharma is the need for a continuous stream of new content, he says, pointing to Snapchat stories that are only live for 24 hours. And generic messages no longer cut the mustard. “Pharma content needs constant revision in order to meet customer demand for personalised messages. Before, we could use a sales presentation for over a year, now everything must be changed and updated all the time,” says Rakitskiy. As the longevity of content decreases, so too the cost of content production must decrease.

Beyond pharma

Is the future of pharma an integration of sales, marketing and medical into a seamless, virtual selling organisation?

“Perhaps,” says Kneen, who says that pharma companies must continually revisit and redefine. “The model of commercial teams will continue to evolve at a pace aligned with the rapid transformation of healthcare systems. The challenge for the industry is to identify the solutions required before anyone else, to respond and evolve quickly. Pharma will need to develop and bring in the variety of skills and knowledge that can respond to this pace of change in our transforming healthcare market,” he says. “As we move away from a focus on volume, it is the valued solution, not the product, that will dictate future winners.”

There are three possible approaches, he says. Pharma can remain as commodity producers, become value innovators or it can become digital health integrators, providing integrated healthcare solutions that reach far beyond the traditional tablet. The latter is where the most interesting changes will occur, he says, as it would clear space for disrupters to enter the market. “Which will be the first pharmaceutical company that does not produce a single drug?” he asks. It certainly seems to be a case of when, rather than if.

Which Pharma Executive Made the Most Money Last Year?

Tracking executive pay follows a familiar pattern: Collect compensation disclosures, read said documents as they pile up, and when the usual suspects have all filed their annual reports and proxy statements, put the numbers into a spreadsheet and sort descending.

It’s pretty much guaranteed Johnson & Johnson’s CEO will be near the top of the list, regardless who’s in the job. Same for Abbott Laboratories—until it spun off its pharma business, AbbVie, whose CEO is now a regular. Same for Bristol-Myers Squibb—from Jim Cornelius to Lamberto Andreotti and now Giovanni Caforio, M.D.

What’s not guaranteed is that the chairman of a generics maker in hot water with the U.S. government and American parents—Mylan’s Robert Coury—would step off the company’s employee roster and into the nonexecutive chairman’s job and reap a $97 million package with the move.

The 20 biotech companies with the best reputations as employers

The 20 companies with the best reputations as employers and the top three driving characteristics for each company, according to respondents in the 2016 survey undertaken for the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office.

Top 10 Global CROs 2017

The global contract research market is growing at a strong rate owing to increasing patent expiration and declining R&D productivity. Furthermore, increasing costs of new product development and revenue loss due to generics have resulted in high demand for contract researching of new biologics and compounds. The global CRO market is highly consolidated with the combined market share of the top-10 companies in this market estimated to be around 80% in 2016. This consolidation can be attributed to the highly stringent nature of the market with requirements of high capital investment. The leaders in this market include a mix of public-listed and privately held organizations.

A ranking system was developed for the top-10 global clinical research organizations. A score statistic was developed to determine the rank of each organization. Revenues, scope of service portfolio, net income and expenses ratios were the key input criteria used to calculate the score statistic for and every organization was assigned a score for each of these key input criteria. Different weights were assigned to each rank. A weighted sum of the scores was used to arrive at the final score statistic for each organization. The final score statistic represents the financial health, competitive advantage, and activity status of each organization in the clinical trials domain.

Ranking of Top-10 Global CRO

Note: *Estimated, **2015, Y= present

Sources: Annual reports and SEC filings.

QUINTILES IMS HOLDINGS, INC. 

Quintiles recorded its revenues at USD 7.8 billion, an increase by nearly 20% from previous year. The company is ranked first among the top CROs across the globe owing to its wide portfolio of clinical research and post-clinical research services. Formed through the merger of Quintiles and IMS Health, QuintilesIMS’s over 50,000 employees conduct operations in more than 100 countries and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

LABORATORY CORPORATION OF AMERICA HOLDINGS

The company became the second largest player in the ranking post its acquisition of Covance in 2015. The Company reports its business in two segments, LabCorp Diagnostics (LCD) and Covance Drug Development (CDD). Covance Drug Development is a provider of end-to-end drug development services from early-stage research to regulatory approval and beyond. In 2016, LCD and CDD contributed 69.9% and 30.1%, respectively, of net revenues to the Company.

PAREXEL International Corporation

The company is ranked third in the list and has a second largest service portfolio. The company provides a broad range of expertise in clinical research, clinical logistics, medical communications, consulting, commercialization and advanced technology products and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.

Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC

PPD is a privately held organization with a strong portfolio of integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services including clinical, pre-clinical, post-clinical, and commercialisation services. The company has 89 offices in 47 countries with more than 19,000 employees.

INC RESEARCH HOLDINGS, INC.

The company is focused primarily on Phase I to Phase IV clinical development services for the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. The company has approximately 6,800 employees in 50 countries across six continents. The company offers a variety of clinical development services, including global studies, clinical monitoring, investigator recruitment, patient recruitment, data management, specialized consulting services, scientific exploratory medicine amongst others.

PRA Health Sciences, Inc.

The company provides clinical trial expertise using clinical development platform includes approximately 70 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, South Africa, Australia and the Middle East and over 13,000 employees worldwide. The company ranked seventh in the list, owing to one of the highest expense ratios and low income ratios.

ICON PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

The Ireland based company specialize in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support all stages of the clinical development process - from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. Net revenues for the company increase 5.8%, from 2015 to 2016 owing to continued organic growth and acquisition of ClinicalRM in 2016.

WUXI PHARMATECH (CAYMAN) INC

The Chinese company is a contract researcher for most of the largest pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies and many smaller companies. It portfolio includes small molecule R&D and manufacturing, biologics R&D and manufacturing, cell therapy and gene therapy R&D and manufacturing, medical device testing, and molecular testing and genomics. The company’s platform is enabling nearly 3,000 innovative collaborators from more than 30 countries to bring innovative healthcare products.

CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC.

The company has a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support target identification and drug development model. The company has three reporting segments: Research Models and Services (RMS), Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA), and Manufacturing Support (Manufacturing).

Advent International

Advent, a private equity firm, acquired inVentiv Health in 2016. The company provides comprehensive and integrated clinical and commercial outsourcing services to the biopharmaceutical industry. The company has more than 15,000 healthcare professionals servicing clients in 90 countries.

 Watch the summary video

Sources: Annual reports and SEC filings.

Luca Dezzani, MD