Matej Mikulic
Research expert covering health, pharma & medtech
U.S. pharmaceutical industry - statistics & facts
Despite the influence of several emerging countries, the United States is keeping a predominant share of the pharmaceutical market worldwide. The country is home to some of the biggest pharma companies worldwide, and American consumers have access to the most advanced pharmaceutical products in the world, albeit at a cost.
The big players in U.S. pharma
According to some estimates, pharmaceutical sales revenues in the United States have accounted for nearly half of the global total in recent years. Five of the 10 leading pharmaceutical companies worldwide were from the U.S. in 2023. During the pandemic years, U.S. company Pfizer was the number one based on prescription drug revenues worldwide, heavily boosted by its COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty. AbbVie is another U.S. company that has made a big impression around the world, with the pharmaceutical segment of its operations generating a record 58 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, driven especially by its longstanding top-seller Humira. However, the largest pharmaceutical company from the United States in 2023, based on prescription drug revenue worldwide, was Johnson & Johnson.COVID-19 boosted R&D
The U.S. pharmaceutical industry has made great strides over the past few decades due to a great focus on research and development (R&D). Pharma companies spend over 21 percent of their revenues on R&D, and this sizeable investment is wasted if a medication does not receive regulatory approval. The R&D expenditure of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry totaled a record 102 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 but has dropped back to under 100 billion dollars until 2023. It is very likely that this figure will, again, increase in the years to come due to the costs associated with developing safe and effective innovative drugs.The high costs of prescription drugs
Prescription drug prices in the United States are among the highest in the world, generating high profits not only for American pharmaceutical companies. The blockbuster drug Humira, which is produced by AbbVie, reached its peak in 2022, with 18.6 billion dollars from sales in the United States alone. Overall non-discounted spending on medicines in the U.S. has already exceeded 700 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Soaring prices and increasing premiums are sources of constant debate, and more than two-thirds of Americans believe drug prices are usually much higher than what consumers should be paying.
