The world economy has been shaken by the disruption caused by COVID-19 and biopharma hasn’t been exempted. Having said that, the opportunities that came with it in the area of researching and strategic placing for research is surely setting biopharma in a path of a boom. There is a long way to go even after the Covid-19 pandemic has eased off and bade farewell.
On average, every statistic and expert prognosis have mentioned that the pandemic would affect biopharma adversely. Yet going against this prediction certain areas within the biopharma industry have opened up and flourished well.
We are seeing some trends that are upcoming and show no signs of slowing down. In this article, we will take a look at the top 4 major biopharma trends one should keep an eye out for in the coming months.
1. Covid-19
Defeating the Elephant in the room
In November, Pfizer and BioNtech, both well-known pharmaceutical giants have made positive Phase III vaccine data available which have made things optimistic. Later, Moderna also revealed its progress in mRNA-1273 vaccine research. The first COVID-19 therapy called Gilead Sciences’ repositioned antiviral remdesivir (marketed as Veklury®) was approved by the FDA.
The following month saw FDA approvals for Moderna’s mRNA-1273 and Pfizer/BioNTech’s BNT162b2. While, AZD1222 (AstraZeneca/University of Oxford), JNJ-78436735 (Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical), NVX-CoV2373 (Novavax), MRT5500 (Translate Bio and Sanofi), V591 (Merck & Co.), and one that is being developed by Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline have also joined the list.
With these developments, it is expected that the capacity of vaccination will increase approximately 150-fold within the fourth quarter of the year 2021. It wouldn’t be too optimistic to think that we will get a handle on the situation this year.
2. Drug development
Inching closer to slaying dragons like Alzheimer’s
Consequently, it is not ascertained if aducanumab, the Alzheimer’s disease candidate that Biogen is jointly manufactured with Eisai will get approved by the FDA. March 7th, 2021 has been kept as the target date, to know the fate of aducanumab which already being assessed under priority review.
In the areas of Oncology, the drug developers are making serious and tremendous achievement. A healthcare strategist at Morningstar, Keren Anderson has mentioned antibody-drug conjugates which include Seagen (formerly Seattle Genetics), and two therapies with breast cancer indications—AstraZeneca’s Enhertu® (fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki) as well as Trodelvy™ (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy), which Gilead Sciences will inherit after the acquisition of Immunomedics. Anderson also added that are expecting additional compound data with PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies for various bispecific antibody programs as well as other antibodies.
3. Synthetic biology
A charging rhino that shows no signs of stopping
In the first half of 2019, it’s recorded that, the total financing in synthetic biology was $1.9 billion. And it got to $3.041 billion during the first half of 2020 as stated in the data shared by SynBioBeta.
In a recent report published by Forbes, John Cumbers, PhD, the founder of SynBioBeta observed that “Coronavirus is not hampering the estimated $4 trillion bioeconomy being driven by synthetic biology.” He added, “If anything, it is helping drive synthetic biology activity.”
4.Genome editing
An eagle about to soar through the sky
The previous year, Eli Lilly allocated the sum of $2.7 billion for making research and development which is potential in vivo therapies for genetic disorders by using Precision BioSciences’ ARCUS® genome editing platform.
Leaps by Bayer, an investment arm of Bayer’s, co-led a $65 million Series A financing for Metagenomi. It is a developer of gene editing systems based on CRISPR for developing cell and gene therapies.
In November 2020 edition of a market report published by the Business Research Company, it was predicted that the global CRISPR technology market will grow from $1.65 billion this year to $2.57 billion by 2023, then rise to $6.7 billion by 2030.
As educators, innovators, and facilitators for success, we at SIDI believe in perceiving trends instead of making a move after a disruption. We hope this article gave you the insight you needed to understand some trends that might change the shape of the market this year.
