Over the past few years we have seen enormous changes on the R&D side of the pharma industry. Mergers big and little have spawned plans to shave costs and many, many research jobs. Struggling to clear a path through a dangerous thicket of patent expirations and risky trials to a bright new future, companies have been overhauling development plans and highlighting new disease arenas as they shutter programs for some of their long-term favorites. And the rapid changes have been felt around the globe.

In 2009, according to the EU's newly released Industrial R&D Investment Scorecard, the biopharma companies among the top 1400 companies around the world actually posted an overall increase in R&D spending even as the global economic crunch triggered a setback in research spending among the entire group. With gains in R&D spending in Europe and the U.S. at only 2% and 1.8% respectively, it took a 26.5% hike in Japan to really drive the numbers up. And many increased their budget devoted to R&D with new mergers and acquisitions that often reflected a hefty appetite for new biotech buyouts.

Global R&D Spending, 1996-2009

Source: Kalorama Information

FierceBiotech analyzed the numbers and came up with the top 15 pharma R&D budgets around the world, with some additional insights into the companies' discovery strategies. Next week, we'll tackle the top 15 biotech companies on the list. Click below to get the details on Pharma's 15 biggest spenders.