The Pharmaceutical Industry at a Glance Nationalities of companies producing top-selling drugs in the world Trends in 2018

In terms of technical classification of active ingredients (small molecule and biopharmaceuticals), there were 59 small molecule and 41 biopharmaceuticals, an increase of 4 biopharmaceuticals over the 2018 survey (63 and 37, respectively) The replacement of small molecule items from 2017 was up 6 items and down 10 items and the replacement of biopharmaceuticals items increased by 5 items and decreased by 1 ^item8).

In 2018, total sales of the top products were $377.5 billion, of which 41 biopharmaceuticals accounted for $186.8 billion (49.5%), indicating that both the number of products and sales are increasing every year (Figure 1).

For the top items, we surveyed the basic patents in each drug, and the number of drugs by company nationality at the time of filing is shown in a pie chart (Figure 2).

Compared to the 2017 survey, the U.S. had the highest number of drugs by nationality with 48, although the number of items decreased. Japan decreased by 2 items to 10, and although its ranking did not change, it came in second place with 10 items, along with Switzerland. The U.K. increased by two to nine, placing it alone in fourth place. Germany's ranking remained unchanged from last year with 7 products, although there was a change in the number of products since then. In addition, one product from Italy and one product from Australia entered the ranking this year.

In 2018, Italy and Australia were again ranked as the top generators of medicines. This brings the total number of top generators to 13 countries (Figure 3).

Figure 6 shows the share of pharmaceuticals by nationality in total sales of the top products.

The U.S.-origin drugs accounted for 49% of total sales of the top products with 48 products originating from the U.S. The Japanese-origin drugs accounted for 10 products with 10 products originating from Japan. Pharmaceuticals of Japanese origin account for 8% with 10 items, while those of German origin account for 15% with 7 items, more than those of Japanese origin. German-origin pharmaceuticals are among the top 10 in terms of sales, with three products in the top 10, and their influence is significant.

Finally, Figure 7 shows the number of products by nationality of the main sales companies. The nationality of the main sales company here refers to the nationality of the company with the largest sales when multiple companies are selling a single product in IQVIA's data. As with the nationality of the company that created the product, the United States (50 products) had a particularly large number of products; the United Kingdom (12 products), with an increase of one product since 2017, was in second place, and Switzerland (11 products), with a decrease of one product, was in third place. Japan was in fourth place with 6 items, down one item from 2017. As for the other countries, Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium, Ireland, and Israel remained unchanged. On the other hand, Australia and Canada newly entered the list with one item each.

In 2018, there are 10 drugs of Japanese origin, but the number of drugs marketed by the main distributor of Japanese nationality is only 6. Of these, four were in-house origin products and the remaining two were of U.S. origin (one each from product in-licensing and corporate acquisitions). On the other hand, the remaining six Japanese-origin drugs were mainly marketed by U.S. companies (two products) or European companies (four products). As in previous surveys ^{2) -} 6), many Japanese-origin drugs still depend on foreign companies for their overseas sales.