Pfizer and AstraZeneca top annual pharma future-readiness rankings

As 2023 draws to a close, the pharma industry finds itself at an inflection point. On the one hand, stubbornly high inflation rates, a dearth of talent, supply chain hurdles, and a more challenging regulatory climate threaten profitability. But on the other, the rapid advances in areas ranging from cell and gene therapy and IT technology offer new opportunities for efficiency gains and innovation.

Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Lilly come out on top in future-readiness

Against that backdrop, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Lilly round out the top three rankings in terms of future-readiness, according to an analysis from IMD. In its annual ranking, Pfizer advanced from second to first place, Eli Lilly moved up from seventh to third place, and Novo Nordisk rose from 13th to seventh. While Pfizer has had something of a rough year, missing its revenue projections as demand for Paxlovid and Corminaty slides, the company has also ramped up its tech investments in recent years. For instance, the company migrated 12,000 applications and 8,000 servers to the cloud in 42 weeks, which it said is one of the fastest migrations for a company its size, saving $47 million annually. Perhaps more impressive financially is the fact that the bulk of Pfizer’s revenue now comes from products introduced in the past three years.

Coming in at number two on the IMD list was AstraZeneca. Although IMD didn’t specify what set the company apart, the company has demonstrated innovation on a variety of fronts. For instance, it launched Evinova, a separate health-tech business, to accelerate innovation across life sciences by offering globally-scaled digital health tech for clinical trials.

IDEA highlighed AstraZeneca as most innovative pharma firm

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca was highlighted as the most innovative pharma by IDEA Pharma thanks to its strong pipeline and R&D capabilities. With 179 projects in the pipeline, including 155 in clinical development, AstraZeneca is targeting treatments across an array of disease areas. Areas of focus include oncology, respiratory, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism, and immunology. The company is also prioritizing AI-enabled drug discovery and has a number of alliances in this area.

In this year’s IMD rankings, Novo Nordisk and Lilly rose thanks to their leadership in next-gen obesity treatments, Novo Nordisk rising in the ranks.

Outside of pharma, IMD highlighted Microsoft as a leader in the IT sector, praising its progress in simplifying software while it put GPU-giant Nvidia in the second slot, thanks to its role advancing AI capabilities across industries. Microsoft, as the largest financial backer of OpenAI with a host of AI initiatives of its own, is also a leader in this regard.