The S&P 500 soared more than 32% in 2013, and several big pharma companies, namely Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY +0.25%), AbbVie (ABBV +0.36%), Roche (RHHBY 0.23%), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ +0.07%), and AstraZeneca (AZN 0.39%) also performed extraordinarily well. The following slideshow reveals why these companies beat out their big pharma peers and what drove their strong performances in 2013.
