Who are the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the U.S.; are any owned
by foreign corporations; and which one (if applicable) has developed
the 'flu shot' for this upcoming flu season?

Some top pharmaceutical companies in the USA are Psizer,
GlaxoSmithKline, Merck... Recent mergers have confused the ranking,
most have foreign facilities if not subsidiaries, but my informant
assures me all the big ones are USA owned. Psizer likely controls the
flu shots for the current season, but that is a guess.

Regarding the 2004/5 flu vaccine, MedImmune Vaccines, Inc. has a nasal
spray called FluMist, see http://www.flumist.com/

Also, Chiron has a vaccine called FluVirin and Aventis Pasteur Inc, has FluZone.

Pharmaceuticals - Top 25 Global Companies (by 2002 revenues)


 Rank Company Total Sales   US$ (Mn)   *USA Based
1 Merck & Co., Inc. 51,790 *
2 Procter & Gamble 40,238 *
3 Johnson & Johnson 36,298 *
4 Bayer AG 34,000 
5 Pfizer Inc 32,373 *
6 GlxoSmithKline Plc 31,819 
7 Roche Group 22,900 
8 Aventis 22,300 
9 Novartis AG 20,911 
10 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company 18,119 *
11 AstraZeneca PLC 17,841 
12 Abbott Laboratories 17,685 *
13 3M 16,332 *
14 Akzo Nobel N.V. 15,107 
15 Wyeth 14,584 *
16 Eli Lilly and Company 11,077 *
17 Schering-Plough Corporation 10,180 *
18 Solvay Group 9,365 
19 Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH 8,964 
20 Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. 8,600 
21 Sanofi-Synthelabo 8,427 
22 Baxter International Inc. 8,110 *
23 Merck KGaA 8,105 
24 Schering AG 5,750 
25 Amgen Inc. 5,523 *

Thank you "go gir_communications", your information is helpful. It
seems that presently, the pharmaceudical companies are being merged
and bought out in a similar fashion as were the banks and S&L's in the
late 80's/90's. My question is not esoteric...rather, curious.   Who
is in control of health care and medicine is important for everyone,
not just Americans.  I've always wondered how and by whom something
like a horrific flu-season can be predicted...but, that's another
question. Thanks again for your time.