That's a 10 year old article. Although if we rank by market cap top 6 are from the US these days (by revenue 5 out 10 seem to be European) so not much has seemingly changed (besides Novo Nordisk becoming the second most valuable pharma company out of nowhere)
> That's a 10 year old article. Although [the] top 6 are from the US these days […] so not much has seemingly changed
Well, thanks for the update. Correcting a citation an out-of-date article that is - as you admit - apparently still relevant as cited was definitely worth everyone’s time.
The very specific figures from that comment are obviously not really correct. e.g. Pfizer's profit margin in 2023 was ~3.5% which isn't that great (and that's the largest pharma company by revenue).
Keep in mind that marketing is a bit complicated - very few countries allow direct to consumer marketing. I think kits just the US and New Zealand. Obviously there would still be marketing in other countries, but a heavy US presence likely skews things.
Fun fact: the main reason it was legalized in New Zealand was heavy US pressure and lobbying over trade agreements and there’s been substantial pressure to get rid of it since then.
Top 10 pharma companies, 5/10 are US (2 UK, 2 Swiss, 1 French).
4 of the top 6 for profit margins (from 43%(!) to 19%) are US (Merck is the only outlier, 9th, at 10%).
4 of the top 5 for Sales and Marketing Spend (both on raw dollars and as a percentage of revenue) are US.
3 of the bottom 5 for R&D spend (as a percentage of revenue) are US.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28212223