Life sciences, primarily pharmaceutical, agrochemical and food and feed industries are the main consumers of fine chemicals. Market size Fine chemicals account for about 4% of the universe of chemicals. The latter, valued at $2,500 billion, is dominated mainly by oil-, gas-, and mineral-derived commodities (~40%) on one hand and a large variety of specialty chemicals at the interface between industry and the public on the other hand (~55%). The global production value of fine chemicals is estimated at $85 billion, of which about 2/3, or $55 billion are produced captively and $30 billion represent the global revenues of the fine chemical industry. The corresponding figures for the major user, the pharmaceutical industry, are $32 billion and $23 billion, respectively. For a number of reasons, such as the lack of statistical data and the somewhat equivocal definition it is not possible to exactly determine the size of the fine chemical market. In Table 5, the approximately $85 billion fine chemical market is subdivided into major applications according to their relevance, namely, fine chemicals for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and specialty chemicals outside life sciences. Furthermore, a distinction is made between captive (in-house) production and merchant market. Pharmaceutical fine chemicals (PFCs) account for two-thirds of the total. Out of the PFC value of $55 billion, about $23 billion (~40%) are traded, and $32 billion (~60%) are the production value of the pharma industry's in-house production. Within life science products, fine chemicals for agro, and —at a distance— for veterinary drugs follow in importance. The production value for fine chemicals used for specialty chemicals other than pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals is estimated at $15 billion. As the leading specialty chemical companies, Akzo Nobel, Dow, DuPont, Evonik, Chemtura and Mitsubishi are backward-integrated, the share of in-house production is estimated at 75%, leaving a merchant market of approximately $5 billion. Target markets Pharmaceuticals The pharmaceutical industry constitutes the most important customer base for the fine chemical industry (see Table 4). The largest companies are Pfizer, USA; Roche, Switzerland, GlaxoSmithKline, UK; Sanofi Aventis, France, and Novartis, Switzerland. All are active in R&D, manufacturing and marketing. Pharmaceuticals containing more than 2000 different active ingredients are in commerce today; a sizable number of them are sourced from the fine chemical industry. The industry also has a track record of above-average growth. The fine chemical industry has a keen interest in the top-selling or "blockbuster drugs", i.e. those with worldwide annual