Band 7+: The chart below shows how much money five big pharmaceutical companies spent on research in 2012 and 2018 and gives an estimate of the amounts spent in 2022. Describe the data providing an overview of the general trends, reporting the main features, and making comparisons.

The bar graph illustrates the financial investments made by five major pharmaceutical corporations in research activities over a ten year period from 2012 to 2022.

Overall, it is clear that the amount of money spent on research by all companies grew over the period in question. However, while the expenditure of Novas brand rose considerably, the spending of other corporations increased only slightly.

In 2012 Pharm and Fleming almost reached the 10 billion mark, whereas the costs of other corporations increased slightly, only reaching just below the 5 billion mark. The Novas and Fleming’ expenses rose dramatically between 2018 and 2022, putting them at the top of the list (about 55 and 30 billions respectively). On the other hand, Biofarm and Avicenna’ spending increased from approximately 5 and 10 billion in 2018 to just over 25 billion in 2022, but at the end of 2022 the companies occupied only the third and fourth positions on the list.

The Novas’ research costs increased steadily year-on-year, from just under 5 billion in 2012 to a peak of just over 55 billion in 2022. In contrast, despite an initial increase in spending by Flemming and Biopharm, the amount of money spent did not increase so much in 2022 (nearly 25 and 30 billion correspondingly).