GlaxoSmithKline was the global leader based on revenues generated through vaccine products in 2017 and is forecasted to maintain this position up to 2024. The London-based pharmaceutical manufacturer generates around one fifth of its total revenue through the vaccines segment. GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines, among others, target meningitis, influenza, shingles, and hepatitis. Other top players in the global vaccine business are Merck & Co., Sanofi, and Pfizer.

Vaccine market overview
The vaccine market worldwide is expected to increase with a compound annual growth rate of seven percent between 2017 and 2024. A main driver of the growth is the increase of various infectious diseases like influenza, swine flu, hepatitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, Ebola, and meningococcal and pneumococcal diseases. The United States are the world’s largest national market for vaccines, while North America is, accordingly, the largest regional market, followed by Europe. Vaccines which are administered intramuscularly make up over half of global revenues, while vaccines which are administered subcutaneously make up around one fifth of the market. Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 is currently the world’s top vaccine product, generating around 5.7 billion U.S. dollars of revenue.

The impact of vaccines   Originally, the main aim of vaccinations (immunizations) was to prevent infections from certain diseases and thus to reduce outbreaks and larger epidemics within the population. Thanks to vaccines, infectious diseases which once had high death rates like polio and smallpox have been nearly eradicated. Others, like measles, mumps, and whooping cough, are mostly under control. However, vaccines can also be used after an infection occurs as a therapeutic. Therapeutic vaccines in immuno-oncology are one of the latest big things in cancer treatment.

GlaxoSmithKline generated approximately 9.3 billion U.S. dollars from vaccine sales in 2021, making it the sixth largest vaccine company in the world based on revenue. Before the pandemic and the appearance of COVID-19 vaccines, the British pharmaceutical giant used to be the global leader in vaccines.

Analyzing vaccine sales of leading companies GlaxoSmithKline reported an annual revenue of 34.1 billion British pounds in 2021 – vaccine sales accounted for around 20 percent of that figure. Year-on-year sales of Shingrix, the company’s shingles vaccine, more than doubled to almost two billion British pounds in 2020. The leading vaccine of Merck & Co. is Gardasil/Gardasil 9, which can help in the prevention of certain cancers. The vaccine is one of Merck’s top-selling products and accounted for more than half of the company’s total vaccine sales. Pfizer generated vaccine sales of nearly 43 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, of course heavily boosted by its COVID-19 vaccine sales. The pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13/Prevenar 13 was the company’s second product based on revenue during that year.

The race for a coronavirus vaccine Until recently, and despite growth in the global vaccine market, there were only four big pharma companies with substantial vaccine operations. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of vaccine research and development. Aided by government funding and partnerships, several smaller companies were among the first to enter the race to find vaccines and treatments for the disease. Biotech company Moderna, by applying its pioneering mRNA research to the problem, was among the first to bring a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine to the broader market.

The global vaccine market is showing some escalating growth and it is expected that it will reach total revenues of nearly 60 billion U.S. dollars by 2020. That would be almost double the size the market had back in 2014. Driver of the growth is the increase of various infectious diseases like influenza, swine flu, hepatitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, Ebola, and meningococcal and pneumococcal diseases. Leading manufacturers of vaccines are big pharma companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., and Pfizer.

How vaccines work

The concept behind the functioning of vaccines - also known as immunizations - is relatively simple: inject a weakened form, or a fragment, of a disease to a person so the body learns to produce antibodies or to start other processes of immunity. As a result, the person’s body is ready to fight the same infection next time. By this way, infectious diseases which once had high death rates like polio and smallpox have been nearly eradicated. Others like measles, mumps, and whooping cough, are mostly under control and larger epidemics have been successfully prevented. While some immunizations last lifelong, others have to be renewed to stay efficient. Despite the obvious success of immunizations and their huge role for public health, there are discussions about the safety and consequences of vaccines in the U.S. and many other countries.

The vaccine market

At this moment, Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 is the world’s leading vaccine product, generating around 5.7 billion U.S. dollars of revenue. Prevnar 13 is a vaccine for the prevention of invasive disease caused by 13 streptococcus pneumoniae strains and can be used in children and adults. The United States are the world’s largest national market for vaccines, while North America is, accordingly, the largest regional market. The global vaccine market is largely dominated by vaccines which are administered intramuscularly. These vaccines make up over half of global revenues, while vaccines which are administered subcutaneously make up around one fifth of the market. Other common routes of administration are oral or intravenous.

This statistic displays the leading 10 global vaccine products based on their revenues worldwide in 2023. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty generated nearly 11.2 billion U.S. dollars in revenues in that year. Top vaccine products Vaccines act as a preventive measure to improve immunity to certain diseases. Often, vaccines are created from a weakened or killed form of a microbe which allows the immune system to react and create a record of it, so that in the future, it can easily recognize these microorganisms. Vaccine use can easily help to prevent contraction of certain viruses such as influenza. However, some countries may not have easy access to vaccinations. The global vaccination market is projected to reach around 95 billion U.S. dollars in 2029. In 2023, Comirnaty and Gardasil were the top revenue generating vaccines in the world, generating 11.2 billion and 68.9 billion U.S. dollars, respectively. Comirnaty is marketed by Pfizer and BioNTech, while Gardasil is marketed by Merck & Co.

The top ten pharmaceutical companies based on global vaccine revenue market share in 2017 and a projection for 2024 include companies like GlaxoSmithKline and CSL. In 2017, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was the top pharmaceutical company and held about 24 percent of the global vaccine market by revenue. GSK is expected to maintain their position as the top company and even gain a small amount of the market until 2024. Pfizer is expected to account for some 16 percent of the global vaccine market by 2024, largely due to success with its pneumococcal vaccine, Prevnar 13. A vaccine often contains an agent that is made from a weakened form of a disease microbe, that is then used to stimulate the body's immune system to destroy and recognize the microorganism in case of later exposures.

Vaccinations market globally

The vaccination market, while important to global health, is relatively smaller than other pharmaceuticals. The vaccination market is heavily regulated globally and depends heavily on the policies of donors and public purchasers. The total global vaccination market has been growing and expected to continue to grow. Current and projected estimates indicate that North America holds the largest proportion of the market, followed by Europe.

Vaccination spotlight: pneumococcal disease

There are various vaccines for many kinds of diseases. In 2017, the top vaccine product based on revenue was Prevnar 13 which is marketed by Pfizer and Daewoong. Prevnar is a vaccination for the prevention of invasive disease caused by certain streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes. In the U.S., the vaccination coverage for pneumococcal disease among adults aged 65 and older is almost as high as the vaccination rate for influenza. Pneumonia, for example, is a serious health problem and represents one of the top leading causes of death in the United States.

According to a forecast as of March, BioNTech's and Pfizer's vaccine against COVID-19 could generate sales revenues of nearly 22 billion U.S. dollars during 2021. The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine was the first COVID-19 vaccine to be widely approved and used. German biotech company BioNTech saw a 156 percent growth in its shares in the last 12 months as of March 2021.

Will Moderna be the big winner? Moderna is expected to be the company with the largest sales revenues from a COVID-19 vaccine. Forecasts predict that the company will make around 43 billion U.S. dollars in sales through its vaccine. Interestingly, Moderna was established in 2010 and had never made profit before the pandemic. Thus, the development of the covid vaccine based on the latest mRNA technology will mark a definitive breakthrough for the Massachusetts-based biotech company. Moderna received significant funding through taxpayer money as well as help in research and development from the National Institutes of Health.

Vaccine pricing in a pandemic Drug pricing is always a big issue and this was also the case with COVID-19 vaccines. While some companies, like AstraZeneca, stated early on that prices for the vaccine will be on a non-profit base at least as long as the pandemic is ongoing, others took a more profit-oriented approach. However, even these companies state that their current prices are low special prices, taking into account urgent public health interests, which normally would be much higher. According to several projections, COVID-19 drugs and vaccines could establish a market worth some 40 billion U.S. dollars annually.

Moderna generated total revenues of some 3.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, a massive decrease compared to the years before. The drop was mainly due to the decreasing demand for its COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax. Working hard to produce the first 'blockbuster' Moderna is a clinical stage biotech company that is pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines. Beside its COVID-19 vaccine, the company is yet to generate revenues from the sale of potential drugs, and this will remain the same until it successfully completes clinical development and obtains regulatory approval for one of its medicines. Like many other biotech companies, Moderna invests significant amounts of money into research and development projects, and annual costs continue to grow. One of the very first COVID-19 vaccines approved Moderna, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), was one of the very first to develop a vaccine to fight COVID-19. The vaccine codenamed mRNA-1273 – designed and manufactured in only 25 days – prevents future infections of the novel coronavirus that has caused the pandemic. The Moderna vaccine successfully went through all necessaryclinical phases, and was the second vaccine - after the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine - to be approved for widely usage already in late 2020.

In 2026, around 85 percent of all forecasted revenue generated by COVID-19 vaccines is expected to be generated by mRNA vaccines. This statistic illustrates the forecasted share of COVID-19 vaccine revenues by technology.

This statistic shows the revenues of Sanofi with human vaccines by area of application, in 2024. Sanofi is one of the top pharmaceutical companies worldwide. It is headquartered in Paris, France. In 2024, influenza vaccines generated approximately 2.6 billion euros of revenue.

In 2021, Merck & Co. reported 9.7 billion U.S. dollars in revenues generated through vaccines. Thus, vaccines were responsible for around 20 percent of the company's total revenues. This statistic illustrates a comparison of vaccine revenues of the leading vaccine manufacturing companies worldwide.

In 2021, COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty produced by Biontech and Pfizer is expected to make 36 billion U.S. dollars in sales worldwide, while Moderna's mRNA-1273 vaccine is expected to make (15 to) 18 billon U.S. dollars. This statistic illustrates the forecasted sales of select major COVID-19 vaccines worldwide in 2021 and 2022.

In 2028, around 86 percent of all forecasted revenue of mRNA products is expected to be from COVID-19 vaccines. This statistic illustrates the share of COVID-19 vaccine revenue of total forecasted revenues from mRNA products worldwide from 2021 to 2035.

In 2021, COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty generated nearly 20 billion U.S. dollars in worldwide sales in the first half of the year. It was not only the bestselling COVID-19-related product in this time period. It was also on track to become the bestselling pharmaceutical product of all time. This statistic illustrates the bestselling COVID-19 vaccines and drugs worldwide in 1st HY 2021.

The revenue of the vaccines segment of the pharmaceuticals market in Latin America was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.2 billion U.S. dollars (+6.6 percent). According to this forecast, in 2028, the indicator will have increased for the third consecutive year to 3.2 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2022, the company BioNTech, best known for producing one of the COVID-19 vaccines, had the highest profit out of all the leading pharmaceutical companies in Germany, at around 12.3 billion euros. In second place was the company Bayer.

Pfizer is a global pharmaceutical company and among the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. Pfizer is headquartered in New York City. In 2024, the company's total revenue stood at 63.6 billion U.S. dollars. Pfizer’s global positioning Pfizer’s products are available in many countries worldwide and as of 2024, the company had more than 200 research and development projects in the pipeline. For several years, Pfizer was the top pharmaceutical company based on global prescription drug sales and is among the leading pharmaceutical companies based on research and development (R&D) spending. Pfizer’s largest segment is Innovative Health (IH). The Innovative Health business focuses on various rare diseases, vaccines, immunology and internal medicine to name a few. Pfizer’s top products In 2024, products from the Prevnar family were among Pfizer's top products based on revenue. However, Pfizer has several other drugs that are also well-known. For example, Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) is used in the treatment of high cholesterol. Over the years, however, Lipitor revenues have been on the decline due to patent loss, yet it remains part of Pfizer’s top products. One of Pfizer’s most well-known products, Viagra (sildenafil citrate), used in the treatment of erectile disfunction, has also been on the decline with 2019 having the lowest revenues on record. The low revenues are mainly attributable to Viagra’s loss of patent exclusivity in the U.S. in December 2017.

The graph depicts Pfizer's top 10 products based on revenue in 2024. Pfizer Inc. is a multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. In 2024, Pfizer's top product was Eliquis. COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, on the other hand, showed another dramatic decline in sales from 11.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2023 to 5.4 billion dollars. Pfizer's top productsPfizer is a pharmaceutical corporation headquartered in New York City, United States. It was founded in 1849 by Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in Brooklyn, New York, where they produced an antiparasitic called santonin. Today, Pfizer produces pharmaceutical products for a wide range of medical sectors that include but are not limited to immunology, cardiology, and neurology. In 2024, Pfizer generated a total revenue of 63.6 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, with oncology products accumulating some 15.6 billion U.S. dollars.Some of Pfizer’s well-known products - although with expired patent protection - include Lyrica and Lipitor, which generated around 3.3 and five billion U.S. dollars in revenue, respectively, in 2019. Pregabalin, marketed as Lyrica, is an anticonvulsant drug used to treat disorders such as epilepsy, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and fibromyalgia. Lipitor, one of Pfizer’s more well-known products, generated revenues of 12.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, however, after Pfizer’s patent on Lipitor expired in 2011, revenue has fallen to under two billion U.S. dollars. Currently, generic forms of atorvastatin (Lipitor) are available. Lipitor is a statin that is used to lower blood cholesterol and to prevent cardiovascular diseases.

In 2024, basic earnings per share of biotech company BioNTech SE stood at around -2.8 euros, compared to around 39 euros back in 2022. This statistic illustrates the annual earnings per share of BioNTech SE from 2017 to 2024. On November 9th, 2020, German biotech company BioNTech in cooperation with U.S. pharma giant Pfizer were the first to announce a proven COVID-19 vaccine to be ready for mass production by year-end.

The revenue change in the 'Vaccines' segment of the pharmaceuticals market in Indonesia was forecast to increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 24 percentage points. This overall increase does not happen continuously, notably not in 2029. The indicator is estimated to amount to 3.42 percent in 2029. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

In 2020, Moderna reported around 803 million U.S. dollars of revenue, but two years after that the company made more than 19 billion U.S. dollars, mostly through its very successful COVID-19 vaccine named Spikevax. This statistic illustrates revenues of leading public RNA-based biotech companies worldwide in 2020, 2022, and 2023.