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As of early February 2026, Eli Lilly had a market cap of 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars and thus was the leader among big pharma companies based on market capitalization. The massive rise of Eli Lilly's market value, which started in 2023, is based in a large part on its strong pipeline. 

Biotech and pharmaceutical companies

Pharmaceutical companies are best known for manufacturing pharmaceutical drugs. These drugs have the aim to diagnose, to cure, to treat, or to prevent diseases. The pharmaceutical sector represents a huge industry, with the global pharmaceutical market being worth more than *** trillion U.S. dollars. Among the best known top global pharmaceutical players are Pfizer, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson from the U.S., Novartis and Roche from Switzerland, Sanofi from France, etc. Most of these companies are involved not only in pure pharmaceutical business, but also manufacture medical technology and consumer health products, vaccines, etc. For example, Johnson & Johnson makes most of its revenues through medical devices, diagnostics, and consumer health products.

There are both pure play biotechnology companies and pharmaceutical companies that, among other products, also produce biotech products within their biotechnological divisions. Most of the leading global pharmaceutical companies have biopharmaceutical divisions. Although not a pure play biotech firm, Roche from Switzerland is among the leaders by revenues from biotech therapies worldwide. In contrast, California-based company Amgen is the world’s largest pure-play biotech company. Amgen made over ** billion U.S. dollars of revenue in 2024. 

Biotech companies use biotechnology to generate their products, most often medical drugs or agricultural genetic engineering. The latter segment was dominated by Monsanto, nowadays a part of Bayer CropScience. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines biotechnology as follows: "Any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use." In fact, biotechnology is thousands of years old, used in agriculture, food manufacturing, and medicine.