COVID-19 changed pharma landscape drastically. Some companies enjoyed the windfall by selling COVID-19 medicines, some suffer losses. Despite of highly competitive environment, the top blockbuster drugs were :

1) Comirnaty and Ibrance : Pfizer was on Rank 1 in 2022. Pfizer along with BioNtech, developed Comirnaty, a COVID-19 vaccine, which propelled Pfizer sales to great extent. Comirnaty alone generated the revenue of approximately $36.80 billion in 2021, however, there was decrease in its sales in 2022 because of less Covid-19 cases compared to 2021, still it maintained top most position due to public confidence in its safety and effectiveness. Pfizer’s other top selling oncology drug Ibrance also shown decrease in revenue from $5.40 billion in 2021 to $5.10 billion in 2022.

2) Humira : AbbVie was on Rank 2 in 2022. 37% of AbbVie’s total revenue accounted by Humira, its total sale gets increased from $20.70 billion in 2021 to $21.20 billion in 2022, reason for growth may include the increasing prevalence of autoimmune disease, expanding indication and approval, lack of market competition and successful market efforts. Despite of good sales figure, Pfizer’s mega blockbuster Comirnaty knocked off Humira to the no. 2 position.

3) Keytruda and Gardasil 9 : Merck and Co Inc. was on Rank 3 in 2022. Thanks to the Keytruda and Gardasil 9. The revenue of Keytruda increased from $17.20 billion to $19.50 billion between year 2021-2022, leading in 3rd position. Sales from Gardasil 9 were reported to be $6.80 billion in 2022, a growth of 19.30 % as comparison to 2021.

4) Spikevax : It was in 4rd position among top selling drug with revenue $17.70 billion in 2021 and $ 19.50 billion in 2022. 10.17 % growth in sales of Spikevax, help Moderna to join the list of top 20 pharma companies in year 2022.

5) REGEN-COV : REGEN-COV sales climbed from $7.50 billion in 2021 to $12.40 billion in 2022, resulting in growth of 65.33%. The potential reasons of growth could be effective treatment and potential authorization for use as a prophylactic treatment. Good sales figure of REGEN-COV leads Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on Rank 5.

6) Eliquis and Revlimid : Two drugs of Bristol Myers Squibb Co, Eliquis and Revlimid was leading in 6th and 7th position respectively. The sales of Eliquis was $11.90 billion in 2022, while the sales of Revlimid was $11.20 billion. As compared to 2021, the sales got decreased to 28.90 % in case of Eliquis and 12.50 % in case of Revlimid. The company was on Rank 6.

7) Biktarvy and Veklury : Biktarvy was in 8th position among world’s best-selling pharmaceutical drugs beating rivals single-handedly with 19.77 % increase in sales revenue in 2022. However, the sale of Gilead’s other drug Veklury fell dramatically from $5.60 billion in 2021 to $3.90 billion in 2022 because of availability of vaccines and oral antiviral medicines in the market. Still Gilead Sciences maintained its position among top pharma companies list.

8) Stelara and Darzalex : Immunology product Stelara was in 9th position in 2022, contributed sales of $9.10 billion and $10.10 billion in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Darzalex, brought oncology products grew 31.67 %, bringing in sales of $ 6.00 billion in 2021 and $7.90 billion in 2022. The strong contribution to growth by these products kept J&J on Rank 8.

The other top leading drugs in 2022 were Eylea, Opdivo, Trulicity, Trikafta, Dupixent, Tecentriq etc.

Overall the sales of medicines have varied in 2021-2022. It will be interesting to see how the drugs continue to perform in the coming years in the market as new treatments are being developed and healthcare market evolves.