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Not a far comparison considering the size of some of the companies. Definetely needs to be weighted. An example, Murphy Oil Corporation has 1,294 employees...

Not a far comparison considering the size of some of the companies. Definetely needs to be weighted. An example, Murphy Oil Corporation has 1,294 employees... Also another interesting trend is how many healthcare companies are in that list.

aaavl2821 9y ago
Healthcare is just under 20% of US GDP and 20% of the companies are in healthcare AmerisourceBergen is a drug distributor / wholesaler, so they have huge revenues bc they sell expensive drugs, but they don't capture much of that (their net income is negative) Express scripts is a PBM and highly profitable. I don't really know what PBMs do at a useful level of detail, but their profitability has been a subject of debate as pharma companies blame them for high prices. They basically aggregate demand for drugs and negotiate prices on behalf of payers, and make money on their ability to do so Gilead had one of the best selling drugs of all time, that did $5B in revenue in the first quarter of launch, and $20B+ in the first year I think. Since then rev has declined but still massive The insurance companies get lots of rev from premiums but margins are low Biogen and celgene also have one or two drugs that do $5-10B / year Should note that drugs only account for 10% of health spend. The biggest driver of healthcare costs -- hospital care (30%) and physician services (20%) don't show up in this chart bc they are fragmented industries and also human-capital intensive
- killjoywashere 9y ago
  > drugs only account for 10% ... hospital care (30%) and physician services (20%) Were you in a class with Professor Long at Tulane? He has a great, great slide illustrating these and many other facts about the US healthcare economy over the last century.
  - aaavl2821 9y ago
    I was not but would be interested in seeing the slides. Are they publicly available?

aaavl2821 9y ago

Healthcare is just under 20% of US GDP and 20% of the companies are in healthcare AmerisourceBergen is a drug distributor / wholesaler, so they have huge revenues bc they sell expensive drugs, but they don't capture much of that (their net income is negative) Express scripts is a PBM and highly profitable. I don't really know what PBMs do at a useful level of detail, but their profitability has been a subject of debate as pharma companies blame them for high prices. They basically aggregate demand for drugs and negotiate prices on behalf of payers, and make money on their ability to do so Gilead had one of the best selling drugs of all time, that did $5B in revenue in the first quarter of launch, and $20B+ in the first year I think. Since then rev has declined but still massive The insurance companies get lots of rev from premiums but margins are low Biogen and celgene also have one or two drugs that do $5-10B / year Should note that drugs only account for 10% of health spend. The biggest driver of healthcare costs -- hospital care (30%) and physician services (20%) don't show up in this chart bc they are fragmented industries and also human-capital intensive

killjoywashere 9y ago
> drugs only account for 10% ... hospital care (30%) and physician services (20%) Were you in a class with Professor Long at Tulane? He has a great, great slide illustrating these and many other facts about the US healthcare economy over the last century.
- aaavl2821 9y ago
  I was not but would be interested in seeing the slides. Are they publicly available?