The R&D Index for the week ending November 16, 2018 closed at 4,238.71 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down -3.30% (or -144.71 basis points) from the week ending November 9, 2018. The stock of nine R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.14% (General Motors) to 1.60% (Merck & Co.). The stock of sixteen R&D Index companies lost value last week from -0.24% (Toyota) to -11.20% (Bayer AG).
R&D Index member Daimler announced last week that it plans to build its second R&D center in China to support localization of Mercedes-Benz vehicle models in China. The $158 million, 55,000-sq-m center will be located close to its engine and vehicle assembly hub in Beijing and will start operations in 2020. It will consist of a test building for carrying out system calibration, durability and thermodynamics, along with an office building staffed with 600 researchers. Its first R&D center was established in 2014.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced last week that it plans to kick off extensive 6G research in 2019. China joins 6G conceptual design and R&D work that has already been started by research organizations in the U.S., Russia and the European Union.
An analysis by PwC (formerly Price Waterhouse Cooper) released last week projected that healthcare will become the leading industry for R&D spending by 2020. Healthcare currently ranks second behind computing and electronics for R&D spending. The forecast reflects the fast pace of healthcare innovation from digital health startups and technology giants to drug and medical device companies for this growth. The industry includes precision medicine, healthcare robotics, machine learning and AI as supporting this trend.
R&D Index member Volkswagen announced last week that it plans to invest nearly $150 billion over the next five years to develop new automotive technologies. About a third of the VW R&D budget will be focused on development of electric vehicles (EVs), self-driving vehicles and digital services. Its alliance with Ford Motor Co. for light truck development (announced in an earlier R&D Index report) is expected to be finalized by the end of 2018. VW plans to build 16 EV global factories by converting existing plants. It also plans to acquire enough battery capacity to build millions of EVs.
| R&D Index Week Ending November 16, 2018 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 11/09/18 | 11/16/18 | 11/16/18 to 11/9/18 | 11/16/18 to 12/29/17 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,712.43 | 1,593.41 | -6.95% | 36.25% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,077.02 | 1,068.27 | -0.81% | 1.41% |
| 3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 204.47 | 193.53 | -5.35% | 14.36% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 48.11 | 48.83 | 1.50% | 5.78% |
| 5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 109.57 | 108.29 | -1.17% | 26.60% |
| 6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 31.30 | 31.40 | 0.32% | -0.57% |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 145.34 | 145.99 | 0.45% | 4.49% |
| 8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 74.86 | 76.06 | 1.60% | 35.17% |
| 9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 16.19 | 16.14 | -0.31% | -60.09% |
| 10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 117.24 | 116.96 | -0.24% | -8.03% |
| 11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 89.22 | 87.75 | -1.65% | 4.51% |
| 12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 28.50 | 28.21 | -1.02% | -17.22% |
| 13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 44.28 | 43.51 | -1.74% | 20.13% |
| 14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 57.57 | 57.71 | 0.24% | -31.75% |
| 15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 35.70 | 35.75 | 0.14% | -12.78% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 50.61 | 51.17 | 1.11% | 8.23% |
| 17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 53.39 | 54.07 | 1.27% | -11.77% |
| 18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 112.21 | 113.83 | 1.44% | 34.77% |
| 19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 41.30 | 40.34 | -2.32% | 13.73% |
| 20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 47.11 | 46.35 | -1.61% | 21.02% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 123.54 | 121.57 | -1.59% | -20.76% |
| 22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 20.18 | 17.92 | -11.20% | -42.36% |
| 23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 40.97 | 40.67 | -0.73% | 17.20% |
| 24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 56.72 | 55.88 | -1.48% | -12.71% |
| 25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 45.59 | 45.10 | -1.07% | 4.88% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,383.42 | 4,238.71 | -3.30% | 11.79% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 698.64 | 696.64 | -0.29% | 9.23% | ||||
| Automotive | 255.20 | 254.77 | -0.17% | -22.14% | ||||
| ICT | 1,717.15 | 1,693.89 | -1.35% | 2.20% | ||||
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.
