Investment in Biotech continues to grow
February 15
08:42
2022
2021 was a year of continued societal uncertainty amidst the ongoing global pandemic, but venture capital investment into biotech shared none of that uncertainty, enjoying its fifth consecutive year of growth in the number of transactions, according to GlobalData. When comparing value, 2021 saw almost $3 invested for every $1 in 2019 ($64.2bn versus $22.2bn).
This begs the questions – where did the capital originate, and where did it go?
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25% of global biotech investment originated in China, which is rapidly closing the gap on the US (45%) for being the source of biotech capital globally. This is in stark contrast to as recent as 2017 when only 8% of biotech capital originated in China.
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Brexit has not deterred investment into UK biotech, taking 3rd place in 2021, behind the US (1158) and China (436), with 109 companies receiving financing.
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Cell and Gene therapies outstripped Monoclonal Antibodies for the first time in 2021, attracting almost double the number of investments (896 versus 534), but still some way behind Small Molecules (1363).
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Oncology, CNS and Infectious Disease remain unchanged as the top three therapy areas attracting capital, but Metabolic Disorders have leapt from 8th place in 2020 to 4th in 2021.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly COVID-19 Spike Protein fell into 4th place for drug targets attracting investment in 2021 (39 investments), behind CD3 (52), TNF (45) and CD19 (40).
