UK SIC 2007 · 21100
Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products (SIC code 21100)
Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products is UK SIC code 21100. It sits in division 21 (Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 1,275 active UK companies list 21100 among their SIC codes. 1,090 of them list it first. That makes it the most used code in its division.
Division 21: Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations
Two codes, and the difference between them matters. 21100, basic pharmaceutical products, is active ingredients and raw materials, and most companies carrying it put it first. 21200, pharmaceutical preparations, is finished medicines, and only around two thirds file it first, because it is often a secondary code for research businesses and distributors. Both are small in company terms and large in everything else, which is normal for a regulated, capital-heavy sector.
Related SIC codes
Who prospects SIC 21100 companies
Contract research and manufacturing organisations, laboratory equipment suppliers, cleanroom and validation specialists and regulatory consultants all sell into this division. So do specialist recruiters, because the skills are scarce and the hiring is constant. The public record is most useful here for spotting new entities early: a spin-out or a new subsidiary appears at Companies House well before it has a website, and that gap is the opening.
Lead generation for recruiters →How to read SIC 21100
SIC 21100 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 21, are the division, manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations. Add the third and you have group 211; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section C, manufacturing, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
More on how SIC 21100 is built
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 21100 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 21100 are London (295), Manchester (24), Birmingham (20), Cardiff (18) and Cambridge (15). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 21100 as a filter
1,275 companies is 0.02 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 21100 most used of the 2 codes we track in division 21. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
More on filtering by SIC 21100
1,090 companies put 21100 first and a further 185, 15 per cent, list it in one of their other three SIC slots. That gap is the difference between a tight list and a broad one. First-code-only is the safer filter when you are writing to them; matching any position is worth it when you need the volume.
These companies are spread out. London is the largest single cluster at 23 per cent and the top five post towns together hold only 29 per cent, so the remaining 71 per cent sits across the rest of the country. A regional filter narrows this list without gutting it, which makes it a reasonable code to work territory by territory.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 21100 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 21100, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 1,275 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 21100 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 21100 companies, as leads
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About SIC 21100
How many UK companies use SIC code 21100?
1,275 active UK companies list 21100 (Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 1,090 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
Does an MHRA licence show up on the Companies House register?
No. Manufacturing and wholesale dealer licences are held by the MHRA and are published separately. The public record holds the company, its officers and its accounts. Use Companies House to find and qualify the entity, then check the MHRA register for what it is actually licensed to do.
Where do drug discovery and research companies sit?
Usually in 72110, research and experimental development on biotechnology, rather than in division 21. Manufacturing codes describe making the product. A company that researches and later manufactures will often carry codes from both, which is a good reason to match on any SIC position when you build the list.
Find UK SIC 21100 companies
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