The United States is the world’s largest market for pharmaceuticals and the world leader in biopharmaceutical research. According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), U.S. firms conduct the majority of the world’s research and development in pharmaceuticals and hold the intellectual property rights on most new medicines. The biopharmaceutical pipeline also has over 5,000 new medicines currently in development around the world with approximately 3,400 compounds currently being studied in the United States - more than in any other region around the world.