The top 15 R&D budgets

In the world of drug development, you're only as good as your pipeline. As many companies' older blockbuster drugs go off-patent, analysts are looking at pipelines to see who'll have what it takes to survive and grow, and which companies will fall behind in the race to develop new drugs.

A recent EU report ranked the world's largest R&D budgets, and Pfizer took the lead--not just among drug developers but among all industries--with a staggering $8.34 billion budget in 2006. But as this report shows, spending more money doesn't necessarily make for a better pipeline. Take a look at this list of the top 15 pharmaceutical R&D budgets to find out how they're spending all those billions of dollars.

- see this special report for more