A pharmaceutical company, or drug company, is a company approved to discover, develop, market and hand out drugs.

Most chief pharmaceutical companies were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, though it is only since the 1950's the industry got happening in earnest. The discovery of penicillin is extensively regarded as the birth of current pharmaceuticals - this was the moment where systematic technical approaches, understanding of human biology and complicated manufacturing techniques all made the development of medicines probable. The industry remained comparatively small scale until a long period of scientific advancements through the 1970s to there day elevated some companies to become among the mainly profitable and productive in the world.

The industry has delivered significantly better treatment for patients and morbidity/ mortality rates across developing countries persist to fall due in no small part to the improvement of research-based pharmaceutical companies.

There are currently extra than 200 major pharmaceutical companies. As in several other industries, economic pressures are forcing pharmaceutical companies toward greater competence. The costs of research and manufacture of ever additional sophisticated medicines grows every year and the worry between the affordability of new medicines and their benefits appear certain to be a continuing major debating point.

Biotechnology has obtainable new possibilities for the future. The first generations of ‘biologic’ therapies are already in use, particularly in cancer. Vaccines, after many years in the research doldrums, are a renewed focus of interest as better understanding of genetics offers new ideas on how disease might be prevented. Looking to the far future it may even be possible, through the promising science of pharmacogenomics, to tailor medicines to every individual.

A biotechnology company is any corporation that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or adjust products or processes for specific use. Often biotechnology companies make pharmaceuticals. Typically a biopharmaceutical made in this manner is composed of extremely large molecules that are unstable and must be administered by injection in a physician's office.

It remains an extremely exploratory area. Biotech companies very often start life as very little spin-offs from university explore departments and are high-tech 'start-up' companies. They often need to get bought out or enter into a licensing accord with a big mainstream pharmaceutical company to see their idea really available for patients.