As it turns out, pharma firms like Revlimid-maker Celgene and Xyrem-maker Jazz Pharmaceuticals actually outperform giants like Pfizer and GSK in one key metric of success: profit margins.
Investor's Business Daily pored through its Healthy Profit Margin database and identified the most lucrative biopharmas on a marginal earnings basis. Jazz, Celgene, Regeneron, and Alexion all made the cut, with annual profit margins ranging from 42.9% to 54.4% (a 50% margin means $0.50 of profit for every $1 in sales):
What's striking about these companies is that their success is largely being driven by products meant to improve patient health and even cure people. One drug maker notably absent from the list: Gilead, whose blockbuster hep C therapeutic Sovaldi may put them on IBD's Healthy Profit Margins list in Q3 or Q4.