Short answer
The St. Louis metro had 28 pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing establishments in 2023, employing 4,396 people at an average annual pay of $86,746 (Census County Business Patterns); Missouri as a whole had 60. FDA's registration file lists 74 drug establishments in the metro, including Pfizer in Chesterfield, Sigma-Aldrich Manufacturing and SpecGx in St. Louis, Curium in Maryland Heights and Meridian Medical Technologies. No SEC-listed drugmaker has its headquarters there.
- St. Louis County (14) and St. Louis city (10) hold 24 of the metro's 28 drug manufacturing establishments.
- At least seven establishments have 250 or more employees, three of them 500 to 999.
- 13 of the metro's FDA registrations list active ingredient (API) manufacturing.
- The source file's two St. Louis matches on EDGAR are Swiss companies with mismatched postal codes, so the listed count is zero.
On this page
This page is for job seekers, suppliers and sellers looking for drug companies in St. Louis. The metro's numbers are small, so it gives the Census count, the named sites from FDA's register and the state figure, and keeps the advice short.
The Census count
County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 3254 (Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing), St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area (CBSA 41180):
| Measure (2023) | St. Louis metro |
|---|---|
| Establishments | 28 |
| Employees | 4,396 |
| Annual payroll | $381,337,000 |
| Average employees per establishment | 157.0 |
| Average annual pay | $86,746 |
| Share of US establishments | 0.97% of 2,901 |
By size, 5 establishments have 1 to 4 employees, 4 have 5 to 9, 4 have 20 to 49, 6 have 50 to 99, 4 have 250 to 499 and 3 have 500 to 999. The Census Bureau doesn't publish the 10 to 19, 100 to 249 or 1,000 or more classes for the metro. St. Louis County has 14 establishments and 2,084 employees; St. Louis city has 10 and 2,156. Sixteen establishments make finished dose pharmaceuticals (1,659 employees).
Missouri as a whole had 60 establishments and 5,756 employees in the same data, so the St. Louis metro accounts for most of the state's drug manufacturing jobs. The Census figures count establishments with employees, not companies, and exclude owner-operators without staff. Distributors and labs sit in other codes: the metro has 50 drug wholesale establishments (NAICS 424210) with 1,225 employees and 38 biotechnology R&D establishments (NAICS 541714) with 772.
Who is in FDA's register
FDA lists every site with a current drug establishment registration in DECRS, its Drug Establishments Current Registration Site. Our count for the metro's 15 counties from the download on 30 October 2026:
| Registered drug establishments | Count |
|---|---|
| All registrations | 74 (63 in Missouri, 11 in Illinois) |
| List manufacturing or API manufacturing | 45 |
| of which API manufacturing | 13 |
| of which medical gas suppliers (our count by firm name) | 9 |
| Pack, label, repack or relabel only | 15 |
| Testing (analysis) only | 10 |
| Medicated animal feed or PET drug production | 4 |
| Registrant | Where | Registered operations |
|---|---|---|
| Pfizer Inc | Chesterfield | Analysis, API manufacture |
| Sigma-Aldrich Manufacturing | St. Louis | Analysis, API manufacture |
| SpecGx | St. Louis, Webster Groves, Fenton; Greenville, Illinois | API manufacture and manufacture |
| Curium US | Maryland Heights | API manufacture, manufacture, PET drugs |
| Patheon Biologics | St. Louis and Earth City | API manufacture, manufacture |
| Meridian Medical Technologies | St. Louis and Bridgeton | Manufacture, sterilize, label, pack |
| Avadel CNS Pharmaceuticals | Chesterfield | Manufacture |
| Virbac Corporation | Bridgeton | Manufacture, label, pack |
Haleon US Holdings, Jost Chemical and Huvepharma also hold St. Louis registrations. Each entry is a filing by the company, not a sign of FDA approval.
Listed companies
No SEC-listed company in SIC codes 2833 to 2836 gives a St. Louis-area headquarters. Our source file matched two, but both are Swiss companies based in Zug whose postal codes were misread, so we left them out. Pfizer, the largest registrant, is headquartered in New York; see the largest pharmaceutical companies for where it ranks.
Checking and selling
- Licences. FDA lists the Missouri Division of Professional Regulation as the agency that licenses wholesale drug distributors; its license search covers Missouri firms. Metro East sites in Illinois are licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
- Compliance. Look up each firm's inspection results, warning letters and recalls on FDA's Data Dashboard.
- The network. BioSTL works on bioscience growth in the region and lists jobs, and Greater St. Louis, Inc. is the economic development organization for the 15-county bi-state region.
For job seekers, the seven or more establishments with 250 or more employees hold most of the 4,396 jobs; the registrant table tells you who runs them. For sellers, 13 API registrations make this a chemistry market: process equipment, solvents, analytical testing, environmental compliance and controlled substance security all have buyers here.
Illustrative example. A calibration lab (gatewaycal.example) targets the 36 manufacturing registrations that aren't gas suppliers plus the 10 testing labs: 46 sites, many belonging to the same few companies. Reaching the metrology or QC lead at 30 sites and signing 4 annual contracts at $20,000 gives $80,000. Because several sites share an owner, a win at one SpecGx or Patheon site is the best reference for the next. Bebop can map which sites belong to which company from a plain-language search.
Next step: see the region's wider business base in companies in St. Louis.
Sources
- County Business Patterns (CBP), 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- 2023 County Business Patterns datasets (metro and state files, NAICS 3254, 424210 and 541714), US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Drug Establishments Current Registration Site (DECRS), US Food and Drug Administration, accessed 30 October 2026
- DECRS annual registration status download (drls_reg.zip), US Food and Drug Administration, accessed 30 October 2026
- Check licensure of wholesale drug distributors and third-party logistics providers, US Food and Drug Administration, accessed 30 October 2026
- Missouri license search, Missouri Division of Professional Regulation, accessed 30 October 2026
- Pfizer Inc. Form 10-K for 2025, Pfizer Inc., via SEC EDGAR, filed 26 February 2026
- BioSTL, BioSTL, accessed 30 October 2026
- Greater St. Louis, Inc., Greater St. Louis, Inc., accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many pharmaceutical companies are in St. Louis?
Census County Business Patterns counted 28 pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing establishments in the St. Louis metro in 2023, employing 4,396 people. FDA's drug establishment registration file lists 74 registered sites in the metro's Missouri and Illinois counties, including packagers, testing labs and medical gas suppliers. No SEC-listed drugmaker has its headquarters in the region.
What pharmaceutical companies have sites in St. Louis?
FDA's drug establishment registration file lists Pfizer in Chesterfield, Sigma-Aldrich Manufacturing in St. Louis, SpecGx at several sites including St. Louis and Webster Groves, Curium US in Maryland Heights, Patheon Biologics in St. Louis and Earth City, Meridian Medical Technologies in St. Louis and Bridgeton, Avadel CNS Pharmaceuticals in Chesterfield and Virbac in Bridgeton.
How much do pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs pay in St. Louis?
Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing establishments in the St. Louis metro paid $381.3 million to 4,396 employees in 2023, an average of $86,746 a year, according to Census County Business Patterns. The average covers every job at those sites. Most of the jobs are at the seven or more establishments with 250 or more employees.