The R&D Index for the week ending April 5, 2019 closed at 4,706.00 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 2.34% (or 107.81 basis points) from the week ending March 29, 2019. The stock of 17 R&D Index members gained value from 0.41% (Oracle) to 7.33% (Bayer AG). The stock of eight R&D Index members lost value from -0.45% (GlaxoSmithKline) to -2.58% (Johnson & Johnson).
U.S. payrolls increased in March by 196,000, according to a Labor Department report released last Friday, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%. March jobs gains are a turnaround from the weak 33,000 job gains for February. For 2019, payrolls have increased an average of 180,000 per month.
Finalization of Brexit, or the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union based on a UK referendum in June 2016, continues to experience a series of political machinations that now could go into June. In an interview with the European Pharmaceutical Review, Jonathan Sheffield, the Chief Executive of the Clinical Research Network at the UK-based National Institute for Health Research, Sheffield stated last week that Brexit is expected to have a minimal impact on health-related R&D. Sheffield’s comments contrast with survey findings by the Royal Society of Chemistry where 72% of the respondents stated that a non-deal with Brexit would be “very negative” for the health R&D sector.
3M Drug Delivery Systems’ UK organization announced last week that it is consolidating its UK-based operations on the DDS R&D Inhalation Centre of Excellence on the Charmwood Campus in Loughborough to build a “community of like-minded expertise and knowledge sharing.” The site includes 1,300 square meters of specifically configured lab space for development of inhalation therapies to treat asthma and COPD.
Manufacturing activity in both the U.S. and China rose in March, relieving investors’ concerns of a possible global recession. The U.S. Institute for Supply Management stated that its manufacturing index rose to 55.3 in March from 54.2 in February. China’s purchasing managers index also rose in March to a six-month high of 50.5 from 49.2 in February, both indices well above analysts’ forecasts. Partly as a result, JPMorgan revised its running estimate for U.S. GDP growth in 1Q 2019 to 2.0% from 1.5% before last week’s data.
R&D Index Week Ending April 5, 2019 |
Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 03/29/19 | 04/05/19 | 4/5/19 to 3/29/19 | 4/5/19 to 12/31/18 | ||
1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,780.75 | 1,837.28 | 3.17% | 22.32% |
2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,176.89 | 1,211.45 | 2.94% | 15.93% |
3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 189.95 | 197.00 | 3.71% | 24.89% |
4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 53.70 | 55.60 | 3.54% | 18.47% |
5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 117.94 | 119.89 | 1.65% | 18.04% |
6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 34.39 | 34.22 | -0.49% | 10.10% |
7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 139.79 | 136.18 | -2.58% | 5.52% |
8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 83.17 | 81.15 | -2.43% | 6.20% |
9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 16.24 | 16.95 | 4.37% | 8.65% |
10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 118.02 | 122.54 | 3.83% | 5.57% |
11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 96.14 | 93.99 | -2.24% | 9.53% |
12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 27.17 | 28.45 | 4.71% | 7.56% |
13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 42.47 | 42.99 | 1.22% | -1.51% |
14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 58.57 | 61.76 | 5.45% | 17.04% |
15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 37.10 | 38.94 | 4.96% | 16.41% |
16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 53.71 | 53.93 | 0.41% | 19.45% |
17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 47.71 | 46.64 | -2.24% | -10.27% |
18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 129.76 | 126.99 | -2.14% | 9.74% |
19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 41.79 | 41.60 | -0.45% | 8.87% |
20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 53.99 | 55.21 | 2.26% | 27.42% |
21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 141.10 | 143.28 | 1.55% | 26.05% |
22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 16.10 | 17.28 | 7.33% | -1.65% |
23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 40.43 | 40.70 | 0.67% | 7.16% |
24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 57.03 | 57.99 | 1.68% | 1.92% |
25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 44.28 | 43.99 | -0.66% | 1.34% |
Total | 243,754 | 4,598.19 | 4,706.00 | 2.34% | 16.85% | |||
Biopharmaceutical | 716.03 | 705.73 | -1.44% | 5.20% | ||||
Automotive | 257.10 | 268.64 | 4.49% | 9.94% | ||||
ICT | 1,844.31 | 1,894.35 | 2.71% | 17.64% |
About the R&D Index
R&D Magazine’s R&D Index is a weekly stock market summary of the top international companies involved in research and development. The top 25 industrial spenders of R&D in 2017 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2018 R&D Ratios & Budgets. These 25 companies include pharmaceutical (11 companies), automotive (5), ICT (8) and conglomerate (1) organizations who invested a cumulative total of more than $209 billion in R&D in 2017, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spent in the world by government, industries and academia combined, according to R&D Magazine’s 2019 Global R&D Funding Forecast. The stock prices used in the R&D Index are tabulated from NASDAQ, NYSE, XETRA and OTC common stock prices (in U.S. dollars) for the companies selected at the close of stock trading business on the Friday preceding the publication of the R&D Index in R&D Magazine’s R&D Daily eNewsletter.