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The Top 20 Pharma Companies by 2024 Revenue
With only one of the biopharma industry’s top 20 revenue companies seeing a year-over-year decline in sales, 2024 was a remarkable year of revenue growth for the industry. Compare that to 2023, when eight of the top 20 drugmakers experienced revenue declines.
Six of the top 20 drugmakers had double-digit increases in 2024, compared to just two in 2023. Five others saw a revenue bump of between 7% and 9%, compared to two reaching those figures in 2023.
For the second year in a row, Eli Lilly (32%) and Novo Nordisk (26%) posted Big Pharma’s largest year-over-year sales bumps, though their positions were flipped from 2023 when Novo (31%) topped Lilly (20%).
FDA Bars Pharma Employees From Advisory Committees: Reform or Symbolic Gesture?
In a headline-grabbing move, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary has announced a new policy that limits individuals employed by companies regulated by the agency — including pharmaceutical and biotech firms — from serving as official members on FDA advisory committees.
Touted as a step toward “radical transparency,” the directive is part of a broader campaign by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to eliminate perceived conflicts of interest and restore public trust in the federal biomedical establishment. The policy, issued April 17, restricts but does not fully bar industry representatives.
While employees of FDA-regulated entities can no longer serve as full committee members in most cases, they may still attend, present, and, in certain circumstances, participate as required by statute. Exceptions may also be granted when unique scientific expertise is not otherwise available — raising questions about how strictly this clause will be enforced and who decides when an exemption is justified.
Novo Says It’s Submitted Obesity Pill for FDA Approval
Drugmakers are scrambling to grab a share of a market that could top $100 billion annually next decade, and pills that can spur meaningful weight loss are a big part of those plans. Novo has long appeared to be well ahead of others in that race.
It had already developed Rybelsus, an oral formulation of semaglutide, for diabetes, and began testing a higher-dose version of it in obesity. And in May 2023, it reported success in a study that tested as high as a 50 milligram oral dose of semaglutide.
In a statement at the time, the company said it intended to seek approval in the U.S. and Europe in 2023.
Yet in an earnings report shortly afterwards, Novo conceded that a launch was “contingent on portfolio prioritizations and manufacturing capacity.” The company has several would-be obesity drugs in clinical development, including a closely watched combination therapy called CagriSema. And unlike Lilly’s orforglipron, oral semaglutide is a peptide drug, making its production more complicated than a traditional small molecule.
World Health Organization Reorganization Plan Developed With Boston-Based Consultancy
The U.S.-based Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has been working with the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) senior leadership, under contract, to develop the major reorganization and cost-saving plan, now pending final presentation to staff and member states next week, Health Policy Watch has learned.
Members of the Staff Association Committee confirmed to WHO staff members on Thursday, that BCG has been involved in the strategic planning for dramatic cutbacks in the agency’s workforce. The cutbacks come on the heels of recent revelations of a $2.5 billion WHO budget gap between 2025-2027, including a $600 million shortfall in 2025, following the announced withdrawal of WHO’s largest donor, the U.S., in January.
The Staff Committee members were speaking at a Staff Association Open House, excerpts of which Health Policy Watch later heard.
The Staff Association representatives did not confirm the amount of the BCG contract — although other informed sources suggested it was several million dollars, or more. Asked to comment, a WHO spokesperson said, “What Staff Association President Corsini said is correct regarding earmarked funds for support to the restructuring.”
