Big pharma is very much an American affair but two of the top five pharmaceutical companies are, in fact, Swiss.
Roche, the second-largest pharma firm, currently produces the top three oncology drugs on the market while Novartis recently sold its stake in a consumer healthcare joint venture to its partner GSK.
Johnson & Johnson, however, is the world’s largest pharmaceutical company even though it is often best known for its vast fast moving consumer goods operations. Beneath the top five drugmakers are a long list of US firms, including Gilead, Merck and AbbVie although other companies such as Japan’s Takeda are increasingly looking to break into the upper echelons of the market.
