The biotech industry encompasses companies whose products benefit people by treating diseases by providing life-saving medications and therapies, improving agricultural yields and creating sustainable chemicals and fuels. It also includes bioinformatics, which involves the study of biological processes and information and can be applied to various industries.
Biotech is a technology that has its roots in the 1970s when the recombinant-DNA technology (genetic engineering) was invented and later patentable. This technique lets scientists splice genes within production cells, which later begin to create useful protein molecules.
Today, a majority of pharmaceutical companies are involved in target-discovery research programs that heavily rely on biotechnology. Smaller companies are also in the pharmaceutical industry that utilize exclusive techniques to develop new therapeutic drugs.
Other biotechnology-related applications are being explored by companies that focus on agrobiology, cosmetics as well as the environment, food technology industrial biotechnology the role of biotechnology in the modern world and nutraceuticals along with vet medicine. Fully integrated Pharma companies are huge commercial companies that study and manufacture generic or brand-name medicines.
New technologies are changing the biotech industry, making it possible for companies to test their solutions in conditions that are established mechanisms (such as sickle cell disease) and reach much larger patient populations. Certain companies are working to create new treatments for conditions that haven’t been addressed, such as Duchenne muscle dystrophy.