The
Prescription Drug Pricing Pathfinder
Who Manufactures & Sells Drugs?
Overview of the Pharmaceutical Industry
While there are thousands of companies producing pharmaceutical products, the
industry has been swept by the same wave of mergers and acquisitions, as many
other industries, leaving a relatively small number of dominant players. (The
compound names give a hint as to who the components of each company are.) The
mergers have been driven partly by a desire to consolidate research and development
costs.
In his book Bitter Pills (Bantam, 1998), Stephen Fried likens pharmaceutical
companies to baseball teams, saying each one has "a couple of rising or
fading drug stars, some dependable role players to fill out the roster and a
farm system" (p. 242). He notes that (at the time he was writing, in the
mid- to late-1990s) fifteen major international drug companies controlled over
60 percent of the world's drug revenues, but no single company controlled more
than 5 percent. Fried, an investigative journalist, wrote the book after his
wife's near-fatal adverse drug reaction. It provides a relatively current overview
of the prescription drug industry, drug safety, and the effectiveness of government
regulation.
Following is a list of the major pharmaceutical research and manufacturing corporations.
Each of these corporations markets hundreds of drugs and other products, but
I have listed their popular drugs where applicable. The web sites contain an
enormous amount of information on the corporations and on their products, and
often direct the user to product-specific web sites. It is worth looking at
a few of these sites just to get a glimpse of how mammoth each of these companies
is.
Abbott Laboratories is headquartered in Illinois. Produces Norvin, an HIV protease-inhibitor
American Home Products includes former independents Wyeth Ayerst and Whitehall Robins.
Aventis, S.A. was created by the merger of the pharmacy/chemical giants Hoechst Marion Roussel and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and is headquartered in Germany.
Bayer is another German corporation comprised of approximately 350 companies. Bayer still makes aspirin, but it makes huge numbers of other pharmaceutical products as well.
Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company is headquartered in New York. They produce Taxol, a very successful cancer drug.
Eli Lilly & Co. is headquartered in Indiana. Lilly makes the anti-depression drug Prozac.
Glaxo-Wellcome is a British company with U.S. headquarters in North Carolina.
Johnson & Johnson is another American company with global holdings. J & J still makes baby products, but, like Bayer, produces a host of other products as well.
Merck & Co., Inc. is headquartered in New Jersey. Merck makes Propecia, a hair-loss prevention drug, and Zocor, a popular drug for treating high cholesterol.
Pharmacia, headquartered in New Jersey, is the new name for three consolidated giants: Pharmacia & Upjohn (also a merger), Monsanto, and G.D. Searle. Pharmacia produces Rogaine and also Xalatan, rapidly becoming the preferred drug for treating glaucoma.
Schering-Plough, headquartered in New Jersey sold $7,735 million in pharmaceuticals last year, and also sold a lot of Coppertone suntan lotion.
SmithKline Beecham is headquartered in Pennsylvania.
Pharmaceutical Trade Associations
PhRMA
The leading association in the pharmaceutical industry is the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America, better known as PhRMA.
PhRMA describes itself as comprised of approximately 100 U.S. member companies
with a primary commitment to pharmaceutical research. All of the industry heavyweights
listed above belong to PhRMA. Not surprisingly, PhRMA is campaigning heavily
for greater insurance coverage as a solution to consumers being priced out of
pharmaceuticals.
Contact PhRMA at:
1100 Fifteenth Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 835-3400 / Fax: (202) 835-3429
NACDS
The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) represents chain drug
stores, which NACDS says fill about 60% of all prescriptions.
Contact NACDS at:
413 N. Lee Street
P.O. Box 1417-D49
Alexandria, VA 22313
Phone: (703) 549-3001
Fax: (703) 836-4869
BIO
The Biotechnology Industry Organization represents biotech companies, including
those who manufacture drugs. BIO was established in 1993 and today represents
approximately 850 companies. BIO is not as prominent as PhRMA, but look for
it to gain in stature as the biotechnology industry continues to explode. Click
here for BIO's policy on pharmaceutical
pricing.
Contact BIO at:
1625 K Street, NW Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: (202) 857-0244
Return to Overview Table of Contents
Return to Main Table of Contents