Supplement: Greater Philadelphia's Big Pharmas

A Region Defined

Did You Know?

A Rich Life Science Cluster

A Robust Support Infrastructure

Barbara Schilberg: Champion for the region

Bridging the Gap

Brenda Gavin: Making a venture capitalist

Investment Momentum Building

Update Those Resumes

Creating Roots

Ramping Up Tech Transfer

The pharmaceutical industry in the Greater Philadelphia region is in a league of its own, with a lineage that dates back to the early 19th century. GlaxoSmithKline can trace its Philadelphia roots to 1830, Wyeth to the 1860s, Johnson & Johnson to 1886, and Merck to 1891. Throughout its history, the pharma industry has served as a powerful driver of economic growth for the Greater Philadelphia region, and it continues to do so today.

In 2004, Harris InfoSource selected the Greater Philadelphia region's Top-20 life sciences companies, based on their number of employees, and a dozen of them were pharmaceutical companies. Many were Big Pharmas including Merck, ...