which industry is bigger (especially in terms of United States 
corporations):
oil,  or  pharmaceutical ?

need  statistics in terms of total revenue vs. profits.

thank you.

Dear Groovy Grace,

The petroleum industry is much bigger than the pharmaceuticals
industries.
1) The petroleum industries top 25 participants in the US = $735
billion
2) The pharmaceuticals industries top 25 participants in US = $301
billion
This I found in a database at business school library called
Onesource.

Both indusstries are concentrated industries in that 80% of the sales
are produced by 20% of the participants. Therefore the numbers aboves
should be highly good indicators.

The petroleum industry is a commodity industry and by nature it is low
in profit.  By contrast the pharmaceuticals industry is reseach &
development based, which by nature is very profitable.  This are facts
learned in business school.

Search more information in the following trade association pages.

American Petroleum Institute 
U.S. Department of Commerce 
U.S. Department of Energy: Energy Information Association 
International Association of Oil and Gas Producers 

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration 
Drug Information Association 

If I can clarify the above please let me know.

I hope this is what you were looking for.  
Claudietta

---

Clarification of Answer by claudietta-ga on 10 Aug 2002 23:30 PDT

...$735 billion and $301 billion are for the year 2001.

Cladietta

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Dept of Commerce,
the chemical industry is WAY bigger than the petroleum industry:

http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/ARTICLES/2001/11november/1101gdpxind.pdf

Table 6.—Real Gross Domestic Product by Industry, 1997–2000 

Chemicals and allied products........... 184.2 (year 2000)

Petroleum and coal products.............25.5    (year 2000)


IN order to tease out the contribution of the pharmaceutical industry
(part of the chemicals industry), you'd have to download some of the
detailed data files from the BEA site.  I believe they also have the
profits data you are seeking.

Good luck.