The History of Drug Manufacturing and a Description of Johnson and Johnson

1. General description
The drug manufacturing industry is concerned with the development, production and marketing of drugs which are to be used as medication. This is one of the oldest industries in the world. The first drug stores date back to the middle Ages. Some of today’s pharmaceutical companies have been founded in the beginning of the previous century. Important discoveries have been made in the early 20th century such as insulin and penicillin who became mass produced. More drugs were developed during the 1950s-1960s such as contraceptives and heart drugs. During that time numerous organizations and declarations were established in order to regulate the industry. Until the 1970s the drug manufacturing industry remained relatively small, and then it began expanding quickly. With the development of technologies and the internet research, manufacturing, marketing and sales of drugs became a lot easier.
In general the drug manufacturing industry is very risky. In order companies to stay in business they need to research and develop new products. Firstly companies need to develop new compounds, however only one on every ten thousand compounds becomes approved and it takes years to do this. Then only 3 out of 20 drugs make enough revenue to cover their development cost and only 1 out of every 3 drugs generates enough money to cover the costs of previously failed drugs.

2. Drug manufacturing industry today.
In the recent years the drug industry underwent a significant transformation. Many of the big companies generate high revenues, which allow them to expand. Some of them expand on their own others through mergers and the buying of smaller companies.
In the recent years drug companies showed an increase in their revenu...

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...MPONI and REMICADE, infectious disease products, such as INCIVO and PREZISTA, neuroscience products, oncology products and other pharmaceuticals. The Medical Devices and Diagnostics segment consists mostly of franchises such as Orthopaedics franchise, Surgical Care, Vision Care, Diabetes Care, Specialty Surgery, Diagnostics and other franchises. The rich portfolio J&J has of products, franchises and companies is one of the reasons why the company is one of the market leaders.

1.5 Market Share and Recent Trends
Today, Johnson & Johnson is a pharmaceutical giant worth $71 billion. The company is listed on NYSE as JNJ with 2.83 billion shares outstanding with the value of $92.7 per share.
2013 is one of the most successful years of Johnson & Johnson. For the past 3 years J&J revenue has been gradually increasing having record high revenue of $71.3 billion for 2013.