The biotech industry has been instrumental in tackling the coronavirus pandemic making research in life science to be much needed. Some of these companies are young startups that have never had a vaccine or drug sold in the market. But besides research into coronavirus vaccine development, biotech companies are also involved in other life-changing clinical research and drug development. With the increasing number in the global elderly population, there is also high demand for quality healthcare systems and only those companies applying game-changing technology in clinical trial research will stay relevant in the business. Biotech firms that have made it to this list are using innovative approaches in treating diseases. Additional factors considered are their presence in the stock market and for the start-ups, the amount of their IPO.
BioNTech
Before its approval of the coronavirus vaccine candidate, little was known about this startup outside of the European medical research sector. But in 2019, Prof Ugur Sahin announced that their messenger RNA genome that is under research could be applied in tackling infectious viral diseases in the case of a pandemic.
Originally, BioNTech’s clinical research focused on patient-specific immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. His research employs deep genomic and innovative profiling which allows for single cells and tumor cells treatment of individual patients because according to him, “every patient has different cancer”.
Today, BioNTech and Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine candidate is the leading vaccine in the world and the first to be approved in Europe and America, taking them a record-breaking 11 months. The stock value of BioNTech has also jumped from about 18 per share (the time they announced their IPO) to currently being worth 84 per share. Many speculate that the couple Prof Ugur and his wife Dr. Tureci deserve a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Eli Lilli
Research in life science requires constant and successful clinical research and rolling out medical treatment that has a significant impact in treating diseases, especially ones that have affected a significant number of people. This strategy is what has kept this more-than-century-old company.
Added to their portfolio of vaccines and treatment is its neutralizing antibodies candidates bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) and etesevimab (LY-CoV016) which have been shown to together reduce the risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations and death by 70 percent.
EQRx
A pharmaceutical company that strives to provide medications that heal diseases is one, but one that makes them affordable for patients and society is yet another. EQRx aims to redefine medicine by creating novel and patent-protected drugs while focusing on oncology, and immunotherapy medications for the healthcare system and also strengthen trust between patients and the industry.
The company was launched last year but by January 2021, they raised $500 million in what was a series B financing, bringing the amount raised in funding to $750 million. The fund will be channeled towards addressing diseases like cancer and other inflammatory diseases which are projected to make up about 40% of the drug spend among the highest cost diseases globally by 2025.
According to the company’s estimates, its innovative therapies have the potential to save the U.S. healthcare system between 50-70% of its current drug spend across the respective therapeutic areas.
Nuvation Bio
Nuvation is a New York-based start-up founded by biopharma veteran, David Hung in 2018. The company is vested in using innovative approaches to tackle difficult cancer diseases that are rather difficult to treat. To this end, the company developed their own six deep pipeline differentiated and novel investigational oncology therapeutic candidates that target some of the most critical pathways that cancer cells use to grow.
David has a history of having successfully developed a new medication used in treating prostate cancer. In February, the young start-up announced their business combination with Panacea Acquisition Corp after which they went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “NUVB”.
Herantis Pharma
This Finnish biotech firm pivots its contribution in disease cure and control by tackling unmet diseases using their novel drug candidates in Parkinson’s disease and secondary lymphedema. For Parkinson’s disease, our neuroprotective and neurorestorative drug candidate CDNF is intended to become the first disease-modifying treatment with further potential in other neurodegenerative diseases.
Our Lymfactin® gene therapy is targeted as the first curative drug for the treatment of breast cancer-related lymphedema.
For More Biotech Stories:
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Laronde: Startup Biotech Firm With Massive Drug Development Plan
