Biotechnology: the healthcare sector’s high-growth area
Biotechnology is a vast field – and a lucrative one for investors. It is concerned with harnessing biomolecular processes (involving lipids, cells, nucleic acid and proteins) to develop technologies and products. Over the last few decades the sector has revolutionised drug development, agriculture and aspects of green energy.
Early investors in biotech companies have done very well. Shares in Amgen (a large drug maker), for instance, have soared by a factor of 170 over the last 31 years; Genus – a UK animal-genetics group –is up 54-fold in the last two decades.
The industry’s successes include new and effective treatments for cancer, cures for serious genetic diseases and the recent development of several Covid-19 vaccines at record speed. Both the Pfizer/ BioNTec and Moderna vaccines use synthetic mRNA, a technique applied to fighting cancer. It adapts the body’s natural RNA, which governs protein production in the cells.
When the vaccine, comprising mRNA and the spike protein from the surface of the virus, is injected into the body, it prompts cells to start producing antibodies (proteins developed
