The R&D Index for the week ending September 14, 2018 closed at 4,793.29 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 0.99% (or 46.79 basis points) from the week ending September 7, 2018. The stock of twenty R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.03% (Alphabet/Google) to 6.69% (Qualcomm). The stock of five R&D Index companies lost value last week from -1.01% (Bristol-Myers Squibb) to -1.96% (Intel).
Reports of R&D Index member’s GM plan to spin off a new entity from its GM Korea division that will focus on R&D has been targeted by the local labor union stating GM’s goal for the spinoff is to shut down Korean production facilities. The largest shareholder of GM Korea has filed a court injunction to stop the spinoff.
Pepsico announced last week that it has joined the NaturALL Bottle Alliance, a research consortium created in 2017 to develop packaging made with 100% sustainable and renewable resources. The alliance is focused on making renewable and recyclable PET bottles fully available by 2020.
According to a recent report by Financial Times, R&D cooperation between U.S. and Chinese pharmaceutical companies has increased by 70% since 2012. A corresponding increase in biotech-based patent approvals has also been seen in China during this period.
A bipartisan congressional spending bill, including R&D, was passed 377-20 last Thursday which funds the government until after the November 6, 2018 mid-term elections. The bill includes funding for the Dept. of Energy, Veterans Affairs and the legislative branch and has been sent to President Trump for signing. The DOE funding bills significantly raised science funding by 5% to 15% over the cuts initially proposed in the President’s initial funding budgets. Government funding was scheduled to end on the end of FY2018 on October 1, 2018 unless this new funding bill was passed.
R&D Index member Apple introduced its new product lineup last week with larger smartphone and iWatch screens and faster processors with an average of about 26% price increases over its 2017 models. Apple now has five smart phone models listing more than $1,000 each compared to only one in 2017. Apple stock rose about 3% following the new product announcements, but finished flat over the previous week by Friday.
R&D Index for Week Ending September 14, 2018
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 09/07/18 | 09/14/18 | 9/14/18 to 9/7/18 | 9/14/18 to 12/29/17 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,952.07 | 1,970.19 | 0.93% | 68.47% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,177.59 | 1,177.98 | 0.03% | 11.83% |
| 3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 221.30 | 223.84 | 1.15% | 32.27% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 46.45 | 45.54 | -1.96% | -1.34% |
| 5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 108.21 | 113.37 | 4.77% | 32.53% |
| 6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 30.67 | 30.75 | 0.26% | -2.63% |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 137.32 | 139.49 | 1.58% | -0.16% |
| 8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 69.67 | 69.98 | 0.44% | 24.36% |
| 9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 15.45 | 16.29 | 5.44% | -59.72% |
| 10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 119.30 | 122.28 | 2.50% | -3.85% |
| 11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 81.78 | 85.22 | 4.21% | 1.50% |
| 12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 28.65 | 28.90 | 0.87% | -15.20% |
| 13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 42.20 | 42.96 | 1.80% | 18.61% |
| 14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 62.86 | 64.18 | 2.10% | -24.10% |
| 15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 33.91 | 34.63 | 2.12% | -15.52% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 47.81 | 49.25 | 3.01% | 4.17% |
| 17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 61.31 | 60.69 | -1.01% | -0.96% |
| 18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 107.03 | 105.77 | -1.18% | 25.23% |
| 19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 39.60 | 39.01 | -1.49% | 9.98% |
| 20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 47.05 | 47.40 | 0.74% | 23.76% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 145.45 | 148.33 | 1.98% | -3.32% |
| 22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 21.17 | 20.89 | -1.32% | -32.81% |
| 23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 37.18 | 37.45 | 0.73% | 7.92% |
| 24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 70.38 | 75.09 | 6.69% | 17.29% |
| 25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 42.09 | 43.81 | 4.09% | 1.88% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,746.50 | 4,793.29 | 0.99% | 26.41% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 670.02 | 676.02 | 0.90% | 6.00% | ||||
| Automotive | 260.17 | 266.28 | 2.35% | -18.63% | ||||
| ICT | 1,864.24 | 1,880.80 | 0.89% | 13.48% | ||||
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 2018 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.
The companies used in the R&D Index include Amazon, Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Volkswagen AG, Roche Pharma, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, General Motors, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cisco, Qualcomm, Oracle, Honda Motor Company, Astra Zeneca plc, Merck & Company, Daimler, Bayer AG, Sanofi SA, IBM, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly Co. Stock prices are based on those stocks traded on the U.S. exchanges. R&D Index trends (in the stock prices) are just one indicator of the amount of capital available to these high-technology companies to invest in R&D and should not be implied to indicate the absolute value of R&D investments made by these organizations. The companies chosen for the R&D Index have very large sophisticated internal and global R&D organizations with each company investing between $4.5 and $17 billion annually on their R&D efforts.
