Our infographic “Who Spends the Most Inventing Drugs?” ranked pharma R&D budgets from SEC filings.
This page is the receipts: every figure on the sheet, linked to the exact annual report it came from, so anyone
can verify any number in one click. The figure is each company’s research and development expense line for its
latest fiscal year as filed; the change column compares it with the prior fiscal year from the same filings.
| # | Company | R&D, latest fiscal year | vs prior year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merck (MRK) | $15.79B | -12% | 10-K filed 2026-02-24 |
| 2 | Eli Lilly (LLY) | $13.34B | +21% | 10-K filed 2026-02-12 |
| 3 | AbbVie (ABBV) | $9.10B | -29% | 10-K filed 2026-02-20 |
| 4 | Amgen (AMGN) | $7.27B | +22% | 10-K filed 2026-02-13 |
| 5 | Regeneron (REGN) | $5.85B | +14% | 10-K filed 2026-02-04 |
| 6 | Gilead (GILD) | $5.80B | -2% | 10-K filed 2026-02-24 |
| 7 | Vertex (VRTX) | $3.91B | +8% | 10-K filed 2026-02-13 |
| 8 | Moderna (MRNA) | $3.13B | -31% | 10-K filed 2026-02-20 |
| 9 | Abbott (ABT) | $2.94B | +3% | 10-K filed 2026-02-20 |
| 10 | Biogen (BIIB) | $1.78B | -13% | 10-K filed 2026-02-06 |
Method notes, for the thorough: companies file the same concept under different labels, so we read both the
standard R&D tag and the “excluding acquired in-process R&D” variant and use the primary income-statement line.
Annual filings carry three years of comparatives under one label, so we select the twelve-month period ending in
the latest fiscal year. Where a change is distorted by an accounting event rather than a budget decision, we
suppress the percentage instead of printing a misleading one.
Descriptive research computed from public filings; not investment advice.
