Manufacturers extraordinaire: The top 10 drug firms of 2006

Judy Chi

When measured by retail dollars, nine out of the top 10 companies were brand-name firms, with Teva Pharmaceuticals being the only generic representative that made the list. When measured by number of prescriptions, three out of the top 10 companies were generic drugmakers, including Teva, Mylan, and Watson Pharma.

Which pharmaceutical companies came out on top last year? When measured by retail dollars, nine out of the top 10 companies were brand-name firms, with Teva Pharmaceuticals being the only generic representative that made the list. When measured by number of prescriptions, three out of the top 10 companies were generic drugmakers, including Teva, Mylan, and Watson Pharma. Of the two lists, only one company—AstraZeneca—logged double-digit increases by both dollars and units. What follows are two tables, one by dollars, one by units. The data were provided by market research firm Verispan.


Top 10 corporations by retail dollars in 2006

  % change from previous year
Pfizer$20,413,717,265-1.8%
GlaxoSmithKline15,794,165,5406.7
AstraZeneca10,899,867,25517.9
Novartis10,108,785,8899.2
Teva Pharmaceuticals9,936,509,25917.2
Merck & Co.8,283,001,583-4.9
Johnson & Johnson8,263,048,088-1.8
Sanofi-Aventis6,149,228,271-5.8
Abbott Labs5,992,405,6846.2
Eli Lilly5,842,618,1159.2




Top 10 corporations by total Rxs in 2006

 % change from previous year
Teva Pharmaceuticals370,827,2228.7%
Pfizer257,653,471-6.1
Mylan235,582,2767.7
Novartis222,391,6717.3
Watson Pharma207,887,4846.1
GlaxoSmithKline104,542,833-8.8
AstraZeneca99,732,79611.5
Mallinckrodt Medical82,903,489-8.6
Merck & Co.81,640,147-6.7
Abbott Labs72,684,001-8.8