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 [0] 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, who's keeping their edge, and who's falling behind.

1. Pfizer [0]

2. Johnson & Johnson [0]

3. GlaxoSmithKline [0]

4. Sanofi-Aventis [0]

5. Roche [0]

6. Novartis [0]

7. Merck [0]

8. AstraZeneca [0]

9. Amgen [0]

10. Bayer [0]

11. Eli Lilly [0]

12. Wyeth [0]

13. Bristol-Myers Squibb [0]

14. Abbott [0]

15. Schering-Plough [0]

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