Global Biotechnology Market Outlook, 2031

The global biotechnology industry covers the use of living organisms, cells and biological molecules to develop products and services for healthcare, agriculture, industry and the environment. Healthcare, or red biotechnology, is the largest segment, including biologic drugs, vaccines, cell and gene therapies, RNA medicines, diagnostics, genomics and the tools used to discover and manufacture them. Agricultural biotechnology includes genetically modified and gene-edited crops, biological crop protection and animal health products, while industrial biotechnology uses enzymes and microorganisms to produce chemicals, materials, fuels and food ingredients. Leading biotechnology companies include Amgen, Gilead, Regeneron, Vertex, Biogen, Moderna, BioNTech, CSL, Alnylam, argenx, BeiGene, now BeOne Medicines, Genmab, Insmed and many thousands of smaller research-stage companies, while large pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca derive much of their revenue from biologics. Tools and services providers include Thermo Fisher, Danaher, Illumina, Agilent, Sartorius, Merck KGaA, Lonza, Samsung Biologics and WuXi Biologics. Agricultural and industrial players include Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta, Novonesis, formed by the merger of Novozymes and Chr. Hansen in 2024, DSM-Firmenich and Ginkgo Bioworks. Venture capital, public markets, government funding and partnerships with large companies finance the industry.

Biotechnology experienced a boom and bust after 2020. The pandemic showcased the sector, as mRNA vaccines from Moderna and BioNTech were developed in less than a year, and investors poured record sums into biotechnology in 2020 and 2021, with hundreds of initial public offerings. Rising interest rates from 2022 caused valuations and funding to collapse, forcing layoffs, restructurings and closures among smaller companies. The sector began to recover in 2024 and particularly from late 2025, supported by lower interest rates, strong clinical data and a wave of acquisitions by large pharmaceutical companies facing patent expiries, including Johnson & Johnson's USD 14.6 billion purchase of Intra-Cellular Therapies, Sanofi's acquisition of Blueprint Medicines, Merck's USD 10 billion purchase of Verona Pharma, Novartis's agreement to buy Avidity Biosciences for about USD 12 billion and Pfizer's acquisition of Metsera after a bidding contest with Novo Nordisk. China has become a major biotechnology force, with Chinese companies accounting for a growing share of global licensing deals, especially in bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates and obesity drugs. In the United States, 2025 brought upheaval at regulators, including large staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA announced in March 2025 and leadership changes, raising concerns about review timelines, while cuts to NIH research funding affected academic science. Scientific progress continued, including the first personalised base-editing therapy for an infant in May 2025.

Market Dynamics Market Drivers • Scientific Breakthroughs and New ModalitiesAdvances in genomics, gene editing, RNA technology, protein engineering, cell therapy and synthetic biology have created new ways to treat disease and produce materials. CRISPR-based therapies, siRNA drugs, antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies, mRNA vaccines and engineered cell therapies have reached patients, and AI tools such as protein structure prediction accelerate discovery. These technologies expand the range of diseases that can be treated and attract investment.
• Pharmaceutical Demand for External InnovationLarge pharmaceutical companies face patent expiries on drugs generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue between 2026 and 2030 and rely heavily on biotechnology companies for new drug candidates. Licensing deals, partnerships and acquisitions provide biotechnology companies with funding and validation. Competition for promising assets, particularly in obesity, immunology, neuroscience and oncology, has driven high deal values and supported the sector's recovery.

Market Challenges • Volatile Funding and High Development RiskBiotechnology companies depend on external financing, and funding conditions swing with interest rates and investor sentiment. After the 2020 to 2021 boom, many companies struggled to raise money, and IPO activity remained subdued for several years. Most drug candidates fail in clinical trials, and development takes many years and large sums, so companies with limited cash must often cut programmes, merge or close.
• Regulatory, Pricing and Geopolitical UncertaintyChanges at the FDA in 2025, including staff cuts and leadership turnover, raised concerns about the predictability of reviews. Drug pricing policies, including Medicare negotiation, which initially treated small molecules less favourably than biologics, most-favoured-nation pricing and tariffs, affect expected returns. Tensions between the United States and China, including restrictions on biotechnology partnerships with certain Chinese companies, add risk for companies relying on Chinese manufacturing or assets.

Market Trends • Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery and DevelopmentBiotechnology companies and large pharmaceutical groups are using AI to design proteins, antibodies and small molecules, predict targets, optimise clinical trials and analyse biological data. Companies such as Isomorphic Labs, Recursion, Xaira, Insilico Medicine and Generate Biomedicines have raised large sums, and several AI-discovered drugs are in clinical trials. Technology companies including Google, Microsoft and Nvidia have partnerships with biotechnology firms, and the FDA has issued guidance on AI in drug development.
• Rise of China as a Biotechnology Innovation CentreChina's biotechnology industry has shifted from copying to developing novel drugs, and Chinese companies now license many assets to Western pharmaceutical companies, often at lower upfront costs and with fast clinical development. Chinese bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, obesity drugs and cell therapies have attracted multibillion-dollar deals. This trend increases competition for US and European biotechnology companies and raises policy questions about dependence on China.



Segment Analysis Healthcare biotechnology accounts for the largest share of the biotechnology market, while agricultural and industrial biotechnology form smaller segments with significant growth potential. Healthcare biotechnology includes biologic drugs such as monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins, vaccines, cell and gene therapies and RNA medicines, as well as molecular diagnostics, genomic testing and research tools, and it accounts for the largest share of industry revenue and investment. Many of the world's best-selling medicines are biologics developed through biotechnology. Agricultural biotechnology includes genetically modified and gene-edited crops with traits such as herbicide tolerance, insect resistance and improved nutrition, biological pesticides and fertilisers, and animal health biotechnology, led by Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta. Industrial biotechnology uses enzymes and engineered microorganisms to produce detergents, biofuels, bioplastics, specialty chemicals and food ingredients, led by Novonesis, DSM-Firmenich, IFF and Cargill. Food biotechnology includes precision fermentation to produce proteins, fats and flavours, and cultivated meat, which faced funding difficulties after an initial boom. Environmental biotechnology applies biological processes to waste treatment, pollution clean-up and carbon capture. Bioinformatics and computational biology, including AI platforms, form a fast-growing enabling segment. Contract research, development and manufacturing services support all these segments.

Monoclonal antibodies and other protein therapeutics account for the largest share of biotechnology product value, while cell and gene therapies and nucleic acid therapies are the fastest-growing technologies. Monoclonal antibodies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, anti-inflammatory antibodies and bispecific antibodies, form the largest class of biotechnology products by revenue. Recombinant proteins, including insulins, growth factors, clotting factors, enzymes and hormones, are long-established biotechnology products. Vaccines, including mRNA, viral vector, protein subunit and conjugate vaccines, are a major segment, with mRNA technology proven during the pandemic but facing lower demand afterwards and policy uncertainty in the United States. Antibody-drug conjugates combine antibodies with chemotherapy and have been one of the fastest-growing product classes. Cell therapies, including CAR-T therapies for blood cancers and emerging applications in autoimmune disease and solid tumours, are growing, along with stem cell-derived therapies. Gene therapies deliver functional genes, while gene editing, including CRISPR, base editing and prime editing, corrects genetic defects. Nucleic acid therapies, including antisense oligonucleotides and siRNA, silence or modify genes and have gained approvals in cardiovascular, neurological and rare diseases. Genomic sequencing, synthetic biology and DNA synthesis technologies support research and diagnostics. Fermentation and bioprocessing technologies underpin industrial production.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug development is the largest application of biotechnology, while diagnostics, agriculture and industrial processing are major additional applications. Drug discovery and development, including research, clinical trials and manufacturing of biologic and advanced therapies, is the largest application of biotechnology, driven by the needs of pharmaceutical companies and the pipelines of thousands of biotechnology firms. Therapeutic areas include oncology, immunology, metabolic disease, neurology, rare diseases and infectious diseases. Diagnostics and genomics, including molecular testing, genetic sequencing, liquid biopsy and companion diagnostics, use biotechnology to detect and monitor disease. Vaccine development and production protect against infectious diseases and are central to pandemic preparedness. Agriculture applies biotechnology to improve crop yields, pest resistance, drought tolerance and nutritional content, and gene-edited crops are gaining regulatory acceptance in several countries. Animal health uses biotechnology for vaccines, diagnostics and breeding. Industrial processing uses biotechnology to manufacture enzymes, chemicals, materials and fuels more sustainably. Food and nutrition applications include enzymes, probiotics, precision-fermented proteins and alternative proteins. Environmental applications include bioremediation and biological approaches to carbon capture. Research applications support basic science in universities and institutes.

Biopharmaceutical companies are the largest end users of biotechnology, while academic and research institutions, contract research and manufacturing organisations, and agricultural and industrial companies form major customer groups. Biopharmaceutical companies, including large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies, are the largest users and developers of biotechnology, investing heavily in research, clinical trials and manufacturing of biologics and advanced therapies. Academic and research institutions, including universities, government laboratories and non-profit research institutes, conduct basic and translational research and generate many of the discoveries that start new companies, although cuts to US NIH funding in 2025 affected research budgets. Contract research organisations, such as IQVIA, ICON, Parexel and WuXi AppTec, run clinical trials and laboratory services, while contract development and manufacturing organisations, such as Lonza, Samsung Biologics, WuXi Biologics, Fujifilm Diosynth and Thermo Fisher, produce biologics and advanced therapies for other companies. Hospitals and diagnostic laboratories use biotechnology-based tests and therapies. Agricultural companies and farmers use biotechnology seeds, traits and biological inputs. Industrial and chemical companies use enzymes and biomanufacturing processes. Food and beverage companies use enzymes, cultures and fermentation-derived ingredients. Government agencies fund research, regulate products and procure vaccines and countermeasures.

Regional Analysis North America leads the biotechnology market because of the scale of US biotechnology research, venture funding, public markets and pharmaceutical partnerships, while Asia-Pacific, led by China, is the fastest-growing region. North America, led by the United States, is the largest biotechnology market and innovation centre. Boston and Cambridge, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, New York and other hubs host thousands of biotechnology companies, supported by leading universities, the NIH, venture capital and the Nasdaq market. US biotechnology companies developed many of the most important recent medicines, and large pharmaceutical companies acquired several US biotechnology firms in 2025 and 2026. The sector faced headwinds in 2025, including FDA staff cuts and leadership changes, NIH funding cuts and pricing policy uncertainty, but recovered with a wave of deals and improving funding. Canada has biotechnology hubs in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Europe is the second largest region, with strong biotechnology clusters in the UK, particularly the Oxford-Cambridge-London area, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and companies such as argenx, Genmab, BioNTech, Novonesis and many start-ups, though European companies often face smaller funding pools than US peers. Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region. China has built a large biotechnology industry with companies such as BeOne Medicines, Hengrui, Akeso, Innovent, Kelun-Biotech and WuXi, and Chinese assets now feature in a large share of global licensing deals. Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and India have growing biotechnology sectors, with South Korea's Samsung Biologics and Celltrion major in manufacturing and biosimilars, and India strong in vaccines and biosimilars. Latin America and the Middle East are developing biotechnology capabilities, with investment in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel.

Key Developments November 2025: Pfizer completed its acquisition of obesity biotechnology company Metsera after a competitive bidding process with Novo Nordisk, one of the most contested biotech deals of the year.
October 2025: Novartis agreed to buy Avidity Biosciences for about USD 12 billion to gain RNA-based therapies for rare neuromuscular diseases.
July 2025: Merck agreed to acquire Verona Pharma for about USD 10 billion, adding the COPD treatment Ohtuvayre to its respiratory portfolio.
June 2025: Sanofi agreed to buy Blueprint Medicines for up to about USD 9.5 billion, strengthening its rare immunology portfolio with the mastocytosis drug Ayvakit.
May 2025: Doctors in Philadelphia reported treating an infant with a rare metabolic disease using a base-editing therapy designed for his specific mutation, a milestone for bespoke genetic medicine.
March 2025: The US Department of Health and Human Services announced about 10,000 job cuts, including thousands at the FDA, raising concerns about drug review timelines and regulatory capacity.

Considered in this report
• Historic Year: 2020
• Base Year: 2025
• Estimated Year: 2026
• Forecast Year: 2031

Aspects covered in this report
• Global Biotechnology Market with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Various drivers and challenges
• Ongoing trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

By Sector
• Healthcare Biotechnology
• Agricultural Biotechnology
• Industrial Biotechnology
• Food Biotechnology
• Environmental Biotechnology

By Technology
• Monoclonal Antibodies and Protein Therapeutics
• Vaccines
• Cell and Gene Therapies
• Nucleic Acid Therapies
• Genomics and Synthetic Biology
• Fermentation and Bioprocessing

By Application
• Drug Discovery and Development
• Diagnostics and Genomics
• Agriculture and Animal Health
• Industrial Processing
• Food and Nutrition

By End User
• Biopharmaceutical Companies
• Academic and Research Institutions
• Contract Research and Manufacturing Organisations
• Agricultural and Industrial Companies