Biotechnology Industry Overview

Companies that engage in genomics and its related fields, particularly in the development and selling of drugs, therapeutic products, research equipment, and related research services.

Summary

Cloning, stem cells, moving individual genes from here to there: biotechnology seems the stuff of science fiction. But the breakthroughs in biotech are very real, and the profits in the industry can be real as well, though they are balanced by extreme volatility and risk of failure.Some biotechnological processes have been around for decades, even centuries in some cases -- think yeast fermentation or mass production of penicillin.

Full Biotechnology Industry Description

Growth in Venture Capital

Health Service Use Constant

Antibody Therapy for Cancer

The venture capital industry has grown rapidly in the last 20 years to fund the commercialization of promising new technologies. Venture capitalists are willing to take financing risks that regular banks avoid, and have developed expertise in various advanced technologies.

The monthly use of healthcare services by Americans has remained remarkably consistent over the past 40 years, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In an average month, 800 of every 1,000 Americans experience health-related symptoms; 217 visit a doctor, and eight are hospitalized.

Many human cancer cells multiply only after chemical receptors on the surface of a cell bind with specific signaling molecules in the cell's environment. By producing antibodies that attach to either the receptors or the signaling molecules, researchers have been able to block the growth signal. To produce antibodies that the body won't reject, but that can be grown in large quantities, researchers have fused human with cultured mouse cells to produce either human-mouse ("chimeric") antibodies or 100 percent human antibodies.

Full Biotechnology Industry Trends

• Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
• Actelion Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd.
• ActivX Biosciences, Inc.

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Hoover's has developed its own industry classifications to better serve its customers. These classifications are mapped to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the older U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The Biotechnology maps to a number of NAICS codes including:

Full Biotechnology Industry Codes

• bioinformatics.org
  
• Biotechnology Industry Organization
  
• National Human Genome Research Institute
  

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