The Generics Bulletin Top 50, Part One: Indian Leaders Climb Into Top 10

Change is a constant theme for our annual Generics Bulletin Top 50 ranking of the world’s leading generics and biosimilars companies, and this year’s rundown of off-patent industry titans is no different.

The top 10 players in 2023’s roster are a different group to last year’s leadership table, with two firms that were present in 2022’s top 10 dropping out to make room for fresh faces to enter.

Meanwhile, even those familiar firms that regularly appear towards the top of the table have seen significant evolution over the past year, reshaping this year’s top three yet again.

As ever, the Generics Bulletin Top 50 ranks by turnover the top players in generics and biosimilars – based on our lead category of Generics/Biosimilars/APIs/OTC sales – and is this year again presented across three daily articles, followed by a fourth and final summary of our data, which is based on publicly available reports and company disclosures.

Sandoz Maintains Lead As Viatris Rejoins Top Three

Our 2023 ranking is once again topped by Sandoz, which maintains its leading position of recent years despite last year seeing a slight dip in sales of 4% – albeit translating to a 4% constant-currency rise – to $9.2bn. (Also see "Sandoz Expects ‘Trough Year’ In 2023 As It Counts Cost Of Spinoff" - Generics Bulletin, 3 Feb, 2023.)

The firm is on the cusp of major changes, as a long-planned spinoff from parent company Novartis is set to take effect later this year. (Also see "Generics Bulletin Explains: Sandoz’s Spinoff From Novartis" - Generics Bulletin, 6 Jun, 2023.) (Also see "Novartis Sets Out Next Steps For Sandoz Spinoff" - Generics Bulletin, 18 Jul, 2023.)

Next in line is Teva, which – like Sandoz – reported a slightly smaller total this year amid similar industry pressures. Unlike Sandoz, however, Teva is increasingly focusing on its more innovation-oriented business segments under the leadership of new CEO Richard Francis, although this does still include a major role for biosimilars as well as higher-value complex generics. (Also see "Will Teva’s New Strategy Shift Towards Innovation?" - Generics Bulletin, 16 May, 2023.) (Also see "Teva: Our Biosimilars Strategy Has Been Fragmented, We Want To Be Global" - Generics Bulletin, 22 May, 2023.)

Moving down to the third position brings the first major change to our ranking this year, as Pfizer is absent despite appearing in third place in 2022. (Also see "The Generics Bulletin Top 50, Part One: Industry Top 10 Reshaped By Leaders’ Transformations" - Generics Bulletin, 15 Aug, 2022.)

This is because the firm – which brings in biosimilars sales alone of around $2bn – no longer splits out its biosimilars or largely generic sterile injectables businesses as distinct reporting segments due to a recent change in company organization. (Also see "Pfizer Interest In Biosimilars Appears To Decline As Firm Ceases To Split Out Segment" - Generics Bulletin, 8 Nov, 2022.) (Also see "Pfizer Quietly Chalks Up Another $2bn Year For Biosimilars" - Generics Bulletin, 8 Feb, 2023.)

As such, Pfizer is no longer eligible for inclusion in the Generics Bulletin Top 50 as per our longstanding methodology (see below), with the firm’s absence from the table allowing Viatris to reassert its place in the off-patent industry top three.

Over the past year, Viatris – which boasts the largest turnover total of all of the companies in our ranking – has been experiencing changes in organization of its own. Not only has the firm undergone a change in leadership – with Scott Smith taking the reins as CEO from the start of April (Also see "Viatris To Bring In Plenty Of Brand Knowledge With New CEO Smith" - Generics Bulletin, 27 Feb, 2023.) – but it has also shed a major chunk of its business by selling its biosimilars interests to former partner Biocon in a deal worth around $3bn. (Also see "Biocon Closes $3bn Deal For Viatris Biosimilars" - Generics Bulletin, 30 Nov, 2022.)

Dr Reddy’s And Cipla Ascend Into Top 10

Moving further down the table, following on from the appearances of Sun Pharma and Shanghai Fosun – retaining their relative placings from last year but rising up a position due to the removal of Pfizer – we come to the second notable absence from this year’s top 10.

Perrigo, which last year dropped out of the top five, has now dropped out of the top 10 entirely, in the wake of the divestment of its prescription generics unit.  (Also see "Perrigo Completes $1.5bn Rx Divestment" - Generics Bulletin, 7 Jul, 2021.)

This means that firms previously ranking beneath Perrigo in our top 10 – Stada, Fresenius Kabi and Aurobindo – all jump up another place this year, making room for Dr Reddy’s and Cipla to join the leading group.

Dr Reddy’s is increasingly pushing forward with a range of future initiatives falling outside of its core off-patent business, with CEO Erez Israeli explaining to Generics Bulletin earlier this year that the firm’s longtime interests in active pharmaceutical ingredients, generics, branded generics and biosimilars were helping to generate proceeds to invest in future innovations. (Also see "Dr Reddy’s CEO Sees Strength Through Diversity" - Generics Bulletin, 27 Jan, 2023.)

And Cipla continues to make progress in generics and complex generics, despite recently facing down facility compliance issues. (Also see "Cipla's Advair Generic US Debut May Be Pushed Out But 'Value Intact'" - Generics Bulletin, 19 May, 2023.)

The Generics Bulletin Top 50 Data

The Generics Bulletin Top 50 ranking compiles sales data for 2022 – or the closest available reported year – across companies for which generics and/or biosimilars is a major part of their business. This excludes firms predominantly focused on active pharmaceutical ingredients, some of which report sales totals that would otherwise be sufficient to be featured in the list.

Also excluded are companies that do not split out generics, biosimilars, APIs and OTC sales from larger units housing mature, often off-patent brands.

Originators with ancillary biosimilars interests such as Biogen are also not included, even though individual product sales figures may be enough to otherwise put them in contention. This is also why Amgen is not included even though it has a sizeable biosimilars business. (Also see "Amgen Builds Up Future Launches As Oncology Biosimilars Slide" - Generics Bulletin, 2 Feb, 2023.)

We also do not include companies that do not disclose detailed sales information, meaning that privately-held players – for example Apotex, Polpharma, Alvogen or Zentiva – are absent from our rankings.