This study’s objective is to test of Porter’s, Mintzberg’s and Miles & Snow’s strategic typologies in the pharmaceutical industries that operate in Brazil, detaching the explanatory capability versus parsimony classic trade-off in its capacity to describe these typologies. A bibliographical revision was made including strategies, environment and performance, using a database with information about the largest fifty pharmaceutical industries operating in Brazil based on invoicing criteria. Ten strategic variables and seven performance variables had been extracted from this database. These variables had been evaluated using statistical procedures as cluster analysis and MANOVA, in order to allow the identification of strategic groups according to the typologies being studied. Finally, the strategic groups average performances were compared to the respective theoretical models expected results. The three tested typologies showed distinct descriptive capabilities. Porter’s typology demonstrated greater tack to the pharmaceutical industries operating in Brazil. The parsimony won the explanatory capability in this market in deep transformation.