From the newsletter
South African based pharmaceutical subsidiary Johnson & Johnson has grown the fastest in terms of African staff among peers in the past year. The company, which was established in 1930 as American Johnson & Johnson’s third subsidiary outside the United States, has grown staff by 40%, or 678 new hires according to LinkedIn data.
The growth can be attributed to Johnson & Johnson uniting Janssen and MedTech under one brand in South Africa, a 2023 global rebranding implemented locally in December 2024 to strengthen healthcare innovation.
The average staff growth across Africa’s pharma top ten leaders is about 14%. Bayer follows Johnson & Johnson with 21%, then Roche at 19%, Pfizer 18%, GSK 14%, Novo Nordisk 10%, Novartis 9%, Aspen 5%, AstraZeneca 4% and Sanofi 3%.
More details
In December 2024, Johnson & Johnson announced the merger of its South African business segments under a single brand identity. The pharmaceutical division, previously known as Janssen, is now Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, while the medical technology arm continues as Johnson & Johnson MedTech. This transition follows a global rebrand first revealed in September 2023.
Bayer recorded 21% growth, the second highest among peers. In July, it announced a partnership with Imperial Distributors under the “Smart Serve” initiative to improve healthcare product distribution in East Africa. The collaboration commenced in May to outsource logistics and customer support. In their opinion. In their opinion, the partnership was to enable Bayer to concentrate on core issues like medical affairs and stakeholder engagement.
Swiss multinational Roche has seen a workforce expansion of 19% and is third in growth rate in this list. This translates to 354 new hires in the past year. Its most rapid growth has been in Ivory Coast, where the team grew by 40%. One of the reasons is Roche’s cancer programme, launched in September 2023, in partnership with the World Health Organization.
The initiative aims to enhance early detection, diagnosis and treatment. In Ivory Coast, services are integrated into existing clinics, with trained health workers screening and treating at the primary healthcare level. South Africa remains Roche’s largest hub on the continent, accounting for 32% of the workforce.
Sales-team dynamics are mixed across the ten companies. Sales-team growth averages 7.4%. Positive commercial hiring is clear at Johnson & Johnson (+25%), Roche (+15%), Pfizer (+13%) and Bayer (+12%). Novo Nordisk shows a healthy sales uplift (+7%), while Aspen recorded a small rise (+3%). By contrast, Novartis, AstraZeneca and Sanofi experienced sales-team contractions by (–1%), (–2%) and (–1%) respectively.
Our take
Africa is becoming a growth frontier for global pharma, with companies scaling both operations and talent to meet rising health demands.
With 27,000 employees across just ten leading firms and an average senior staff growth of 14%, the pharmaceutical industry is rapidly expanding.