ABSTRACT
There is considerable diversity between the firms that comprise the modern pharmaceutical industry. Companies may specialize in the manufacture of a small number of medicines used in the treatment of just a few disease entities (although the markets concerned may of course be substantial), or they may have product portfolios extending over an extremely wide range of therapeutic categories. Of the major manufacturers, some have UK origins but most are subsidiaries of overseas parents, notably from the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The significance of pharmaceuticals in the overall pattern of corporate activity also shows substantial variation between manufacturers: for example, pharmaceuticals generate most of Glaxo’s income but less than 10 per cent of that for ICI where other manufacturing interests include paints, plastics, fibres, industrial chemicals and fertilizers.
