But a recently published index indicates the company that razed its labs in Talleyville and moved some jobs to its Medimmune unit in Maryland is the top innovator in the pharmaceutical industry.
The eighth annual Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, released by IDEA Pharma, puts AstraZeneca top the industry for the first time.
The Pharmaceutical Innovation Index measures, scores and the company’s ability to deliver innovation to patients, by objectively evaluating performance based on a rolling five year period (2012-2017).
AstraZeneca came from the middle of the pack in 2017 to take the 2018 PII crown. Gilead also continued their PII ascent, to second place, advancing from 2017’s 3rd. Johnson & Johnson, having ceded the top spot last year after a four year run on top, was able to regain some of the lost ground in 2018, landing in a joint 3rd spot with a rapidly-improving Novartis.
Pharmaceutical Innovation Index 2018
PII 2018 PII 2017 Change
Ranking Company Name Ranking from 2017
1 AstraZeneca 15 +14
2 Gilead 3 +1
3 Johnson & Johnson 4 +1
3 Novartis 12 +9
5 AbbVie 2 -3
6 Bristol-Myers Squibb 9 +3
7 Merck & Co 7 No change
8 Roche 11 +3
9 Pfizer 19 +10
10 Biogen 1 -9
10 Novo Nordisk 8 -2
12 Amgen 13 +1
13 Eli Lilly 21 +8
13 GlaxoSmithKline 16 +3
15 Sanofi 20 +5
16 Allergan New
17 Celgene 10 -7
18 Valeant New
19 Bayer 18 -1
20 Otsuka 14 -6
20 Regeneron 24 +4
22 Boehringer Ingelheim 25 +3
23 Eisai 26 +3
23 Teva 30 +7
25 Lundbeck 27 +2
26 Merck KGaA 28 +2
27 Sumitomo New
28 Astellas 23 -5
29 UCB 29 No change
30 Shire 22 -8
31 Takeda 5 -26
32 Mylan New
How did AstraZeneca catapult from 15th spot in 2017 all the way to the top of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index?
A series of strategic decisions that helped generate a substantial amount of positive data for their pipeline began to stem the company’s downward trend since the loss of several patent expirations between 2011 and 2017. AstraZeneca managed to launch five new medicines in 2017, across their primary therapy areas, the report noted.
IDEA Pharma’s CEO, Mike Rea said: “There is no gaming the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index -success is achieved by discovering and developing meaningfully great medicines and getting those medicines to market, and to patients. It is wonderful to see a company of AstraZeneca’s scale and history able to turnaround its fortunes in a relatively short period of time.”
At last report, AstraZeneca had about 1,500 employees in Delaware.
For a further look at this year’s Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, visit http://www.ideapharma.com/pii
