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Big Pharma

American

[big fahr-muh] / ˈbɪg ˈfɑr mə /

Or big pharma

noun

pharmaceutical companies considered collectively, especially with reference to their political and commercial influence.

The article attributes rising medical costs to private healthcare, Big Pharma, and insurance.

Etymology

Origin of Big Pharma

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It isn’t uncommon for Big Pharma to pay tens of billions of dollars for a biotech company.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

Big Pharma is on the prowl for biotech companies, but it’s being stingy.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026

He also likes healthcare, which benefits from the fact that many Big Pharma and biotech companies pay juicy dividends.

From Barron's • Mar. 13, 2026

For now, Big Pharma remains insulated from severe impact to its bottom line.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2026

For Big Pharma, the triumph of developing a new lifesaving blockbuster drug that generates billions in revenue is inevitably followed by the reality that drug patents have an expiration date.

From Barron's • Nov. 20, 2025

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023