Therapeutics & platforms

AI-driven drug discovery — AlphaFold structure prediction, generative chemistry and physics-based virtual screening — compressing the target-to-candidate pipeline from years to months.

Next-generation antimicrobial compounds and combinations designed to overcome multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections and address the global AMR crisis.

Targeted oncology therapies utilizing monoclonal antibodies to deliver highly potent cytotoxic payloads directly to cancer cells, minimizing systemic toxicity.

Utilizing naturally occurring or precision-engineered bacterial viruses to selectively target and eradicate specific pathogenic bacterial strains without harming the microbiome.

Biologics — monoclonal antibodies, ADCs, CAR-T and gene therapy — are the largest and fastest-growing drug class, built on a reproducible cell-line platform at 2–10 g/L titers.

Large-molecule therapeutics manufactured via living cells to treat complex diseases like cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders.

Contract development and manufacturing organizations providing specialized infrastructure for advanced biopharmaceuticals.

Corticosteroid and reproductive-hormone APIs made by mycobacterial fermentation of phytosterol into AD/ADD/9-OHAD precursors, then biocatalytic and semi-synthetic finishing — a globally-offshored manufacturing tier anchored by Olon, Farmabios and Gadea in Europe, Tianjin Tianyao in China, Symbiotec in India and Asymchem's biocatalysis CDMO.

Engineered antibodies that bind two (or more) antigens on one molecule — most powerfully a CD3 arm that recruits the patient's own T cells to a tumour cell — delivered off-the-shelf as approved drugs across lymphoma and myeloma by Roche, Janssen, Regeneron, AbbVie/Genmab and BeiGene.

A patient's own T cells are collected, engineered with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) using a lentiviral vector, expanded and re-infused to kill cancer — an approved one-time living-drug class spanning CD19 lymphoma/leukemia and BCMA multiple myeloma, now advancing toward off-the-shelf allogeneic products.

Engineered-enzyme steps (transaminases, ketoreductases, lipases) substituted into small-molecule API routes to replace metal-catalysed or multi-step chemical sequences — anchored by Codexis's CodeEvolver platform (the Merck sitagliptin transaminase case) in the US, Almac's biocatalysis CDMO in the UK, Lonza's HPAPI/biocatalysis toolkit in Switzerland, and Asymchem and WuXi AppTec's biocatalysis-enabled CDMO platforms in China.

The end-to-end R&D pipeline that carries a drug or vaccine candidate from target identification through Phase I-IV clinical trials to regulatory approval — a 7-15-year, billion-dollar process now being reshaped by personalized mRNA platforms, GLP-1 blockbuster economics and competing FDA, EMA and NMPA regulatory-acceleration reforms.

High-precision sterile filling of advanced biological drugs into final delivery formats using isolated robotic environments.

Precision delivery of functional genetic material via engineered vectors to treat inherited diseases and severe genetic disorders at their root cause.

One-time, potentially curative genetic medicines delivered by engineered adeno-associated and lentiviral vectors — eight FDA-approved in-vivo products since 2017, from Luxturna to Beqvez, now a multi-billion-dollar clinical reality alongside honest commercial retrenchments.

Live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) — standardized, GMP-manufactured microbial consortia approved as drugs for recurrent C. difficile, inflammatory bowel disease and immuno-oncology support.

Synthetic mRNA in lipid nanoparticles (60–100 nm) turns the cell into a bioreactor — from a vaccine platform to personalised cancer immunotherapy and in-vivo protein expression.

CAR-NK and NK-cell therapy — allogeneic, off-the-shelf effector cells with low toxicity (minimal CRS, no GVHD) against solid and haematological cancers; iPSC-NK is the scalable platform.

Short synthetic oligonucleotides — siRNA and antisense — bind a target messenger RNA to silence or reprogram a disease gene, enabled by GalNAc liver targeting and sugar/backbone chemistries, with multiple approved drugs across rare, neurological and cardiometabolic disease.

CRO-delivered three-stage process validation and IQ/OQ/PQ qualification of biopharma equipment — media fills, cleaning validation, CSV and viral clearance under FDA/EudraLex Annex 1 cGMP.

Bifunctional small molecules that recruit an E3 ubiquitin ligase to a disease protein, tagging it for proteasomal destruction — an event-driven, catalytic drug modality approaching its first approval with Arvinas's estrogen-receptor degrader vepdegestrant, and a deep pipeline across IRAK4, IKZF and BTK targets.

Psychoactive-compound therapies (psilocybin, MDMA, 5-MeO-DMT) and next-generation non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens that trigger rapid synaptogenesis via serotonin 5-HT2A receptor signaling, targeting treatment-resistant depression and PTSD — a field with genuine 2026 clinical wins and a high-profile FDA regulatory setback.

Radioactive compounds that pair a tumor-targeting vector with a diagnostic or therapeutic isotope — 'see what you treat, treat what you see' — now commercial at multi-hundred-million-dollar manufacturing scale.

Engineered oligonucleotides that recruit the cell's endogenous ADAR enzymes to rewrite a pathogenic adenosine to inosine on disease transcripts — a reversible, titratable alternative to DNA editing now in clinical validation, with Wave's WVE-006 (AATD, RestorAATion-2) the lead asset and ProQR's Axiomer platform delivering the first clinical proof of mechanism.

Living mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) or regulatory T cells (Treg) are infused to re-tolerise the immune system in autoimmune and inflammatory disease — an approved-asset class led by Mesoblast's Ryoncil for steroid-refractory GVHD and TiGenix's Alofisel for Crohn's fistula, with a deeper engineered-Treg pipeline for lupus, arthritis and aplastic anemia.

Patient T cells are engineered with a high-affinity T-cell receptor (TCR) that recognises a peptide-MHC complex inside a solid-tumour cell — an approved one-time therapy reaching tumour targets CAR-T cannot, led by Adaptimmune's Tecelra and Immunocore's Kimmtrak, with a deeper pipeline advancing MAGE-A4, NY-ESO-1, gp100 and PRAME targets.

TIL therapy — autologous tumor-infiltrating T-cells with polyclonal specificity; the first approved drug Lifileucel (Amtagvi, Iovance, FDA 2024) is a breakthrough in metastatic melanoma.