Pharmaceutical companies in Texas: many small plants, big distributors and a few global sites

Use this report if you're looking for drug companies in Texas to work for, partner with or sell to. It counts plants with Census data, names registered sites from FDA's file and checks the listed companies in their 10-Ks. The city reports go deeper: Houston and Dallas.

Texas in the Census data

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 3254 (Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing):

The Census Bureau doesn't publish the 250 to 499 or the 1,000 or more cells for Texas. Together they hold 3 establishments, the total less the published classes, so 18 Texas plants have 100 or more employees, against 110 with fewer than 20. By product, 82 establishments make finished-dose pharmaceuticals (325412, 6,000 employees), 48 make medicinal chemicals and botanicals (325411, 1,252), 22 make biological products (325414, 1,456) and 15 make diagnostic substances (325413, 1,176).

Why the low pay? The product mix explains much of it. Dividing CBP payroll by employees, Texas biological product plants paid $107,878 on average in 2023, medicinal chemical and botanical plants $75,611 and finished-dose plants $69,559 (our calculation). Texas has far more of the last two.

"Not reported" means the Census Bureau published the figure but flagged it as high-noise: its confidentiality noise moved the value by 5% or more. CBP counts plants and other locations with paid employees, not companies, and doesn't count the self-employed.

Distribution is the bigger industry

Code 3254 counts plants only. Head offices, research labs and distribution centers have their own codes, and in Texas the distributors dominate: 608 drug wholesale establishments (NAICS 424210) with 16,918 employees in 2023. That code also covers wholesalers of vitamins, botanicals and cosmetics, so not every site handles prescription drugs. Biotechnology R&D (NAICS 541714) adds 257 establishments with 4,041 employees.

What FDA's registration file shows

FDA's Drug Establishments Current Registration Site (DECRS) is the public list of registered drug sites. We counted 357 Texas registrations in the 30 October 2026 download:

Houston and Dallas have 30 registrations each, Fort Worth 20. Hereford has 9, nearly all feedyards and feed mills registered to make medicated feed. The larger manufacturing names include Alcon Research in Fort Worth, Allergan Sales and Pacific Pharma in Waco (both registered to Allergan, Inc.), FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies in College Station, AstraZeneca in Coppell and Lonza in Houston (active ingredients), DPT Laboratories in San Antonio, Mission Pharmacal in Boerne, Sovereign Pharmaceuticals in Fort Worth and Otsuka ICU Medical in Austin. Consumer companies such as Mary Kay in Lewisville are registered too, for over-the-counter products. None of this means FDA has approved a site; companies file their own registrations.

The state's Economic Development and Tourism office names FUJIFILM Diosynth, Alcon, Galderma, Novartis and Taysha Gene Therapies among life sciences companies with a strong presence in Texas.

Listed drug companies headquartered in Texas

SEC EDGAR shows 29 listed companies in SIC codes 2833 to 2836 with a Texas business address. Checked in each latest 10-K:

Two companies EDGAR files under Texas give other addresses on their latest 10-K covers: CG Oncology (Irvine, California) and Savara (Langhorne, Pennsylvania). The global companies behind the big Texas sites report from elsewhere; see the largest pharmaceutical companies.

Checking a Texas company

1. Licence. FDA lists the Texas Department of State Health Services as the agency that licenses wholesale drug distributors in the state. Ask any distributor or logistics partner for its state licence number.
2. FDA record. FDA's Data Dashboard shows inspections, warning letters and recalls for each registered site.
3. Product type. Check what a registrant actually makes: a "manufacturer" in the file may be a feed mill, a gas filler or a cosmetics brand.
4. Local networks. BioHouston, based in the Texas Medical Center, runs a jobs board for its members and regular events.

Selling to Texas drug companies

Worked example: a quality systems consultancy

Illustrative example. The firm and its fees are invented; the counts come from CBP 2023 and FDA's registration file.

Brazos Quality Partners (brazosquality.example) writes and audits GMP quality systems for small drug and OTC makers.

1. Find the small makers. 110 plants with fewer than 20 employees, cross-checked against the 131 manufacturing registrations to find who makes what.
2. Screen out the wrong fits. Drop gas fillers and feed mills, which follow different rules, and keep finished-dose, botanical and OTC makers.
3. Do the arithmetic. If 60 accounts remain, 1 in 5 takes a gap audit at $9,000 and half of those buy a $30,000 remediation project, that's $108,000 plus $180,000, or $288,000.

Sorting real drugmakers from cosmetics brands and feed mills is the slow part; Bebop researches each account and explains why it fits.

Next step: compare a state with fewer plants but far larger ones in the North Carolina pharmaceutical market report.