Table 1. Financial Metrics for Large Pharmaceutical and S&P 500 Companies From 2000 to 2018.
| Financial Metrica | Median Amount, $b | Median Revenue, %c | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pharmaceutical (35 companies; 631 fiscal yearsd) | S&P 500 (357 companies; 6258 fiscal yearsd) | Difference (95% CI)e | Pharmaceutical (35 companies; 631 fiscal yearsd) | S&P 500 (357 companies; 6258 fiscal yearsd) | Difference (95% CI)e | |
| Market capitalization | 36 103 | 12 159 | 15 562 (12 024 to 19 737) | NA | NA | NA |
| Revenues | 10 564 | 8426 | −289 (−971 to 569) | NA | NA | NA |
| Expense metrics | ||||||
| Cost of goods sold | 2276 | 5265 | −2147 (−2558 to −1733) | 23.5 | 62.6 | −32.6 (−34.5 to −30.6) |
| Research and development | 1247 | 0 | 982 (861 to 1141) | 16.2 | 0.00 | 14.5 (14.0 to 14.9) |
| Selling, general, and administrative | 3528 | 1216 | 1589 (1232 to 1969) | 28.2 | 16.6 | 10.7 (9.8 to 11.5) |
| Profit metrics | ||||||
| Gross profit | 6556 | 2885 | 2528 (1755 to 3440) | 76.5 | 37.4 | 32.6 (30.6 to 34.5) |
| EBITDA | 3152 | 1535 | 886 (562 to 1257) | 29.4 | 19.0 | 8.8 (7.7 to 9.9) |
| Net income | 1147 | 574 | 420 (256 to 612) | 13.8 | 7.7 | 4.5 (3.6 to 5.4) |
Abbreviations: EBITDA, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization; NA, not applicable.
For definitions of financial metrics, see the Box or the eAppendix in the Supplement.
Value in US dollars inflation adjusted to 2016.
Profit metrics expressed as percentage of annual revenue represent profit margins.
One fiscal year represents 1 observation in the statistical analysis.
Median difference between pharmaceutical and S&P 500 data sets, with 95% CI calculated as Hodges-Lehman estimator. This value is calculated as the median of differences between all pairs of observations from the pharmaceutical and S&P 500 data set and may not be equivalent to the simple difference between medians or to the differential profit margins calculated using multivariable regression models with controls.