Innovation is considered one of the fundamental drivers of firm performance, moreover in the healthcare area, where it represents the main driving force. The global pharmaceutical market has been facing several challenges, such as tough competition by the generic drugs, the growing rigor of the rules and increasing costs of developing a new medicine, as well as the governments stress to reduce their expense with health. In that scenario, a permanent innovation capacity will be a critical factor to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage. Employing a sample of Brazilian pharmaceutical companies, this research aims to identify the level of competency development and to what extent this competency is related to a competitive performance. Initially, bibliographic survey was accomplished and a questionnaire, specifically developed to the investigated sector, applied. The assembled data analysis identified low and medium levels of internalization of the necessary competences to innovate. As expected, the set of companies with higher level of development of these competences showed higher degrees of performance considering the variables employed in this study. The study also underlined that the abilities innovation insertion in the company strategy and cooperation to innovations presented positive relation to the net margin rate of the researched companies.