Feature article:

2024 pharma statistics

Strong 9.2% market growth – driven by obesity

An efficient reporting system has seen all the listed multinational pharmaceutical companies announce results for 2024, which has given us the opportunity to update our industry statistics and drug database. This report provides the first snapshot of global pharmaceutical market growth plus the global and US company rankings for 2024. The year was characterised by 9.2% underlying (ex-COVID-19) growth. Much of the growth was driven by recently launched anti-obesity drugs and oncology drugs. Both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have entered the global top 10 ranking for the first time in their history.

• Global market: Hardman & Co estimates that the underlying global prescription drug (Rx) market grew 9.2% in 2024, to $1,127bn, from $1,032bn in 2023. Reported growth, including the ever-declining COVID-19 contribution from vaccines and therapies, and a small forex negative, was 7.6%.
• US market: The main driver of global growth was the US market, which saw underlying growth of 13.0% in 2024, to $509bn, from $450bn in 2023, with an increased contribution to the global market of 45.3%, representing 43.0%. In 2024, the US FDA approved 63 new chemical entities (NCEs) and biologics, up from 53 in 2023. Additionally, eight gene therapies received approval.
• Oncology: Drugs to treat cancer are perceived as an important growth driver. Our preliminary analysis shows the rate of sales growth at 9.3%, to $229bn, in 2024. The patient population (new patients minus deaths), drug efficacy, approval rates and loss of patent protection were all contributory factors.
• Best-selling drugs: Keytruda (Merck & Co; melanoma) is now the world’s top-selling drug, with 2024 sales of $29.5bn. The rapid rise of obesity drugs places Ozempic (Novo Nordisk) at #2 with sales of $17.4bn and Mounjaro (Eli Lilly) at #8 with $11.5bn. Introduction of biosimilars has seen sales of Humira (AbbVie) fall 58% from their peak in 2022, to $9.0bn, placing it at #12. The top 10 drugs had global sales of $143.3bn in 2024, representing 12.7% of the entire market.
• R&D investment: The top 20 drug companies by sales reinvested an increased 22.5% of Rx drug sales back into new drug development, spending $167bn out of the total spend of $194bn by the 45 largest companies. The average R&D spend was $8.3bn, ranging from $17.9bn (Merck & Co) to $3.5bn (Bayer).

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