Roche has topped the tenth annual Pharmaceutical Innovation Index, jumping seven spots on its 2019 ranking and beating out AbbVie, while AstraZeneca heads the Invention Index.
The annual index is released by global biopharmaceutical consultancy IDEA Pharma. The company separately assesses and ranks biopharmaceutical innovation and invention.
The company said it defines innovation as the 'return on invention' - a company's ability to deliver innovation to patients over a rolling five year period.
It says while Roche has topped this year's list, smaller companies "are, more than ever, able to bring their products to patients without a traditional large pharma partner."
The top ten includes new entrants such as Vertex (=3), Alexion (7) and Shinogi (9). AbbVie ranked second for the second year running. Novartis jumped six places to equal third, AstraZeneca also jumped six places to sixth, while Regeneron jumped seven places to rank equal tenth with Johnson & Johnson. Lilly was ranked fifth and MSD eighth.
The Invention Index ranks companies according to their pipelines based on novelty and first in class development.
AstraZeneca has topped the list for the second year running, ahead of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lilly, Novartis and Gilead. The top ten also includes Regeneron, AbbVie, MSD, Vertex and Roche.
"AstraZeneca's retention of the Invention Index No 1 reveals the success of their relentless focus on pipeline diversity and novelty," said the company.
According to IDEA Pharma CEO, Mike Rea, "There is no gaming the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index – success is achieved by discovering and developing meaningfully great medicines and getting those medicines to market, and to patients. More than ever, we see that excellence is unevenly distributed across the industry – not every company is equally able to realise the value in their pipeline."