By Healthcare Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
Biotechnology uses living organisms to develop new or improve upon existing products or devices.
A little help from genetic engineering
When genetic engineering developed in the 1970s, it helped biotech research flourish, as scientists were able to directly change genetic material. This can be seen in the rapid development of CRISPR-based medicine, which took off after a 2012 paper showed how it could be used in gene editing.
The biggest positive for this research is how it can help create treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. However, seeking this type of treatment is pretty expensive—estimated between $1 million and $3 million per dose in 2024, per the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review—making it largely inaccessible for most patients.
A burgeoning startup market
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a lot of health tech startups clamoring in this area of healthcare that offers so much opportunity for experimentation. Just halfway through 2025, already nine of the top 20 biggest M&A deals of the year involved biotech companies.
This spike in M&A activity among biotech companies largely began in 2021 after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, leaving smaller companies more likely to be acquired. This was an especially opportune time for Big Pharma, which was still riding the high of Covid-19 drug development.
