A year after a bearish market led to a year-over-year decline in the market capitalization (the product of the share price and the number of outstanding shares) of the top 25 public biotechnology companies, this year saw an unmistakable comeback that—absent anything unexpected—bodes well for 2025.
As of December 8, the total market cap of the Top 25 biotechs reached $1.909 trillion, up 11.6% over the combined $1.711 trillion of the market caps ranked by GEN a year ago. Last year’s A-List held the dubious distinction of being the first time we reported a year-over-year decline in the market cap of the top 25 biotechs since 2012, when GEN began compiling A-Lists.
This past year, however, investors re-embraced biotech for reasons that have included the speed of new therapies reaching the market, the aging of populations in the U.S. and other developed countries, and the rising incidence of chronic diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
Overall, 21 of this year’s top 25 biotechs recorded year-over-year gains in market cap, with 15 of those gainers enjoying at least double-digit gains. One company, UCB, more than doubled its market cap following a merger, resulting in a triple-digit gain.
Separate factors explain the significant double-digit market cap losses for two of this year’s top 25 biotechs. The biggest year-over-year decline in market cap was recorded for Biogen, which during the first three quarters saw its revenue shrink as its top-selling multiple sclerosis drugs lost revenue to competition from less expensive generics. Biogen has also carried out cost-cutting—including the elimination of approximately 1,000 jobs—that the company projects will generate approximately $1 billion in gross operating expense savings by 2025.
The company with the second biggest one-year market cap decline, WuXi AppTec, is among four Chinese-owned biotechs that saw their stocks nosedive over the past year after they were cited by name in the BIOSECURE Act, a bill in Congress which would forbid the awarding of federal contracts, including procurement of drugs for Medicare and Medicaid, to “foreign adversary biotech companies of U.S. national security concern.” The BIOSECURE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives 306–81 in September, but suffered a setback in December when it was omitted from the National Defense Authorization Act.
As for companies whose market caps grew the most in 2024, number-one among the top 25 public biotechs is UCB. Its stock price has more than doubled over the past year, zooming 146% on the strength of a strong launch and rosy forecasts of future sales for Bimzelx® (bimekizumab-bkzx), an anti-inflammatory drug indicated for forms of plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and hidradenitis suppurativa (HS).
During the first six months of 2024, Bimzelx sales more than quadrupled from 2023, soaring from €52 million ($54.9 million) to €215 million ($226.9 million). Peak annual sales forecasts have been pegged at €7.2 billion (about $7.6 billion) by Jefferies, while TD Cowen has projected peak sales of more than €6 billion ($6.3 billion)—of which more than €3 billion (about $3.2 billion) is expected to be generated from the drug’s HS indication.
This A-list does not include pharmaceutical companies that have a heritage of small molecule, nonbiologic drug development. (In recent years, GEN has covered these companies through a separate list.)
The smallest company listed this year has a market cap of nearly $18 billion, about the same as the 25th ranked company on GEN’s Top 25 Biotech Companies of 2024.
Just missing the list at number 26 is Moderna, which had a market cap of $17.10 billion on December 7, followed by United Therapeutics ($16.50 billion), biopharma royalties acquirer Royalty Pharma ($15.26 billion), Incyte ($14.62 billion), and Revvity, which includes the former life sciences and diagnostics businesses split from PerkinElmer ($14.17 billion).
Several other companies previously included in this A-List no longer appear, either because they were acquired (such as Seattle Genetics, which Pfizer bought for $43 billion in a deal completed in December 2023) or because their market cap has shrunken enough to have been surpassed by larger companies. Examples of the latter include Genmab (No. 33 at $13.85 billion) and BioMarin Pharmaceutical (No. 38 at $12.71 billion).
