to publication of their name. Organization The vfa publishes leading members in their "fotoarchive", with Birgit Fischer as managing director, but no other organizational details like employee figures or operating expenses. the vfa's latest statistics are in a 2015 downloadable publication, which contains mostly general PR. Members As of 2010, the vfa represented 43 German pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies with about 80,000 employees, including the following eight largest global pharmaceutical companies with 2014 pharmaceutical sales in brackets: Novartis (51.3B$), Pfizer (44.9B$), Sanofi (40B$), Roche (37.6B$), Merck (36.6B$), Johnson&Johnson (36.4B$), AstraZeneca (33.3B$) and GlaxoSmithKline (31.5B$). Their 2014 sales have decreased due to corporate mergers and patent expiration, according to the vfa. In 2015, there were 265 pharmaceutical companies per The Federal Statistical Office. The vfa members are: Amgen AbbVie Inc. Deutschland, 2013 spin-off of Abbott Laboratories Actelion Pharmaceuticals Deutschland GmbH Aegerion Pharmaceuticals GmbH Astellas Pharma GmbH AstraZeneca GmbH Baxter Deutschland GmbH Bayer AG Berlin Chemie AG bioCSL GmbH Biogen GmbH Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA C.H. Boehringer Sohn / Ingelheim Daiichi Sankyo Deutschland GmbH Eisai (company) GmbH GlaxoSmithKline GmbH & Co. KG Grünenthal GmbH Ipsen GroupPharma GmbH Janssen-Cilag GmbH Lilly Pharma Holding GmbH Lundbeck GmbH MediGene AG Merck KGaA Merck & Co named MSD Sharp & Dohme on vfa website Mundipharma GmbH Novartis PHARMA GmbH Nürnberg Novo Nordisk Pharma GmbH Otsuka Pharma GmbH Pfizer Deutschland GmbH Roche Deutschland Holding GmbH Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland Swedish Orphan Biovitrum GmbH Takeda Deutschland UCB (company) GmbH Vifor Deutschland GmbH ViiV Healthcare GmbH Controversies In 2010, the vfa and the BPI were listed as the most powerful lobby groups for the pharmaceutical sector in Germany. See also Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (UK) Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (US) References External links Christina Elmer, Patrick Stotz and Stefan Wehrmeyer Euros für Ärzte Datenbank: Wie viel Geld hat mein Arzt bekommen? Interactive database, Der Spiegel, 14.07.2016 (German) Lobbying in Germany Pharmaceutical industry in Germany Political advocacy groups in Europe Pharmaceutical industry trade groups Organizations established in 1994