Overall, the top 16 largest pharmaceutical companies spent $159 billion on research and development in 2025, compared to $165 billion the year prior. Here’s where all that cash went at companies like Johnson & Johnson, Amgen and Pfizer.
R&D spending at the top 16 pharmaceutical companies declined by 3.6% overall in 2025, as many aggressively cut spending and refocused pipelines. AbbVie had the steepest decline, meaning the company spent 29% less on research.
Overall, the top 16 heavyweights spent $159.1 billion on R&D in 2025, compared to $165 billion the previous year.
Johnson & Johnson’s research expenses fell by nearly 15% to $14.7 billion. Much of that decline can be attributed to changes made in 2023, when the healthcare giant completed a prioritization of its R&D investment within the Innovative Medicines segment. J&J exited a number of programs at the time, including infectious diseases and vaccines, such as a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) adult vaccine program, hepatitis and HIV development.
While that program wrapped up in 2024, J&J’s 2025 spend reflects a slimmer organization.
Similarly, Bristol Myers Squibb dropped R&D spending by 11% in 2025 to $9.95 billion. The company attributed this to lower impairment charges for the period, which can result from writing down failed programs, and the ongoing strategic productivity initiative.
BMS originally announced that program in April 2024, pledging to achieve $1.5 billion in cost savings through eliminating jobs and prioritizing development programs. The company cut several legacy programs from its 2019 Celgene acquisition in the process.
Merck is also doing a little restructuring. The company cut R&D expenses by 12% for 2025 thanks to lower charges for business development activity. But those savings were offset by higher clinical activity and restructuring costs.
Pfizer, too, flagged restructuring across the company as impacting its R&D spend, which fell 4% to $10.21 billion.
AbbVie, meanwhile, took on $4.48 billion in impairment charges to its line item on R&D expenses. Absent that charge, the company’s adjusted R&D spend actually rose by $1 billion, CEO Robert Michael explained during a February earnings call. After the adjustment, AbbVie spent $8.99 billion on R&D, according to the company’s earnings report.
On the other side of the coin, pharmas including GSK and Amgen pumped money into research.
Amgen had the biggest increase, with 22% more going toward programs like the weight loss asset MariTide. The company spent $7.27 billion overall on R&D, representing 20% of its revenue.
Regeneron had a 14% boost, spending $5.85 billion on research. Among the larger pharmas, the company spends by far the greatest share of its revenue on R&D, with 41% of its income going toward clinical development and related expenses.
Across the pond, GSK bumped up R&D spending by 18%, particularly increasing its spend in oncology and vaccines. The company expects to continue this trend as it invests more and adopts operational efficiencies to lower costs.
One drag on GSK’s R&D expenses was the termination of the anti-TIGIT program belrestotug, which meant an impairment charge of £471 million ($631 million). The therapy produced disappointing results in the Phase II GALAXIES Lung-201 study in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Meanwhile, GSK funneled energy—and cash—into its antibody drug conjugate (ADC) programs, the MASH drug efimosfermin, hepatitis B treatment bepirovirsen and more.
Finally, AstraZeneca added 5% to its funding for R&D, for a total of $14.23 billion. This went toward work on immuno-oncology bispecifics, cell therapy and ADCs. Key readouts throughout the year also unlocked Phase 3 development, which accelerated expenses.
