Most of the pharmaceutical companies in California are based in San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego, as well as Los Angeles-Ventura areas, while Orange Country (Irvine), North Bay, Silicon Valley and San Diego are the major medical devices hubs in California.
The San Francisco Bay Area is ranked as the second biggest pharma cluster in the US, after Boston and Cambridge in Massachusetts. San Diego is also ranked 5th.
In 2021, there are about 13,689 life sciences companies in California, employing 335, 231 workforce and also contributing $472 billion (including the supply chain) to the state’s economy. California is also a dominant force in innovation, with 25% of all active pharmaceutical trials, and also leads with 1380 therapies in the FDA pipeline.
Alongside states like New Jersey, California is the state with the highest number of employment in the pharmaceutical industry. Massachusetts and California are also the top two states with regard to employment in the biotech research and development.
California is home to some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies such as Amgen, Gilead Sciences, Genentech, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Novartis, AbbVie, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Takeda.
Top Pharmaceutical Companies in California
- BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc, with its headquarters in San Rafael, California.
- Amgen, headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California.
- Gilead Sciences Inc, headquartered in Foster City, California.
- Genentech, Inc, headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
- Nektar Therapeutics, based in San Francisco, California.
- Acadia Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Sorrento Valley, San Diego, California.
- Resilience, headquartered in San Diego, CA.
- Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, based in Carlsbad, California.
- Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc, based in Rancho Cucamonga, California
- Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in San Diego, California.
- Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., based in Brisbane, California.
- Neurocrine Biosciences, headquartered in San Diego, California.
List of Pharmaceutical Companies in California
This is the list of pharmaceutical companies in California’s counties and major pharmaceutical clusters.
- List of Pharmaceutical Companies in Sacramento, CA
- List of Pharmaceutical Companies in Los Angeles Region
- List of Pharmaceutical Companies in Orange County, CA
- List of Pharmaceutical Companies in San Diego, California
- List of Biotech & Pharma Companies in San Francisco Bay Area & Northern California
