BigHat Biosciences Funding, Investors & Competitors

Merck KGaA operates in three main segments: life science, electronics, and healthcare. The life science segment provides laboratory consumables and instruments to researchers in academia and applied fields, including the biopharmaceutical industry. The electronics segment offers specialty materials to manufacture a variety of products, such as semiconductors and flat-screen televisions. In the healthcare segment, Merck develops, manufactures, and sells branded pharmaceuticals with significant therapeutic concentrations in oncology, multiple sclerosis, and fertility. In 1995, the E. Merck family publicly sold part of the company, resulting in the current 30% public ownership of the firm.

Sinovac Life Sciences is a research-driven biopharma conducting vaccine R&D, production, and commercialization for human infectious diseases. Based in China, it focuses on viral pathogens through clinical trials, process scale-up, and regulatory filings. Operations mirror Sinovac Biotech efforts in formulation stability and large-scale filling for needle-free and traditional delivery systems.

Astromech is an artificial intelligence company spun out of Colossal Biosciences, founded by Ben Lamm. It uses AI to analyze biological data and forecast evolution and disease risk, applying its platform to biotech research.

Chai Discovery is a San Francisco-based applied AI research lab, founded in 2024, that builds foundation models to predict and design interactions between biochemical molecules for drug discovery. Its models, including Chai-1, Chai-2, and Chai-3, are used to design molecules such as antibodies for difficult drug targets, with its most recent model achieving a de novo antibody hit rate far above prior computational methods. The company's technology has been used by pharmaceutical partners including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Novartis.

Eli Lilly is a drug firm with a focus on neuroscience, cardiometabolic, cancer, and immunology. Lilly's key products include Verzenio and Jaypirca for cancer; Mounjaro, Zepbound, Foundayo, Jardiance, Trulicity, Humalog, and Humulin for cardiometabolic; and Taltz and Olumiant for immunology.

Anthropic is an AI safety company developing large language models and researching methods to make artificial intelligence more reliable and steerable. Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers including Dario and Daniela Amodei. The company's flagship product is Claude, a family of AI assistants deployed across consumer applications and enterprise APIs. Research priorities center on constitutional AI, mechanistic interpretability, and alignment techniques. Major investors include Google, Spark Capital, and Salesforce Ventures.

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company that develops large language models, including the GPT series, and consumer-facing products such as ChatGPT. Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab, the organization transitioned to a capped-profit structure in 2019 to attract the capital needed for large-scale AI development. The company offers API access to its models for enterprise and developer use, alongside image generation through DALL-E and code-assistance tools. Headquartered in San Francisco, OpenAI has become one of the most prominent players in the generative AI space, backed by a multibillion-dollar investments from Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, SoftBank and many more.

Johnson & Johnson is the world's largest and most diverse healthcare firm. It has two divisions: innovative medicine and medtech. These now represent all of the company's sales following the divestment of the consumer business, Kenvue, in 2023. After restructurings in 2023-24, the drug division focuses on three main therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, and neurology. Geographically, just over half of total revenue is generated in the United States.

AbbVie is a pharmaceutical firm with a strong exposure to immunology (with Humira, Skyrizi, and Rinvoq) and oncology (with Imbruvica and Venclexta). The company was spun off from Abbott in early 2013. The 2020 acquisition of Allergan added several new products and drugs in aesthetics, including Botox. The 2024 acquisitions of Cerevel (neuroscience) and ImmunoGen (oncology) help supplement AbbVie's portfolio.

Roche is a Swiss biopharmaceutical and diagnostic company. The firm's bestselling pharmaceutical products include a variety of oncology therapies from acquired partner Genentech, and its diagnostics group was bolstered by the acquisition of Ventana in 2008. Oncology products account for 50% of pharmaceutical sales, and centralized and point-of-care diagnostics for more than half of diagnostic-related sales.

Merck makes pharmaceutical products to treat several conditions in a number of therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic disease, cancer, and infections. Within cancer, the firm's immuno-oncology platform, led by Keytruda, is a major contributor to overall sales. The company also has a substantial vaccine business aimed at preventing pediatric diseases, as well as Gardasil for human papillomavirus. Additionally, Merck sells animal health-related drugs. From a geographical perspective, 47% of the company's sales are generated from US human health (pharmaceuticals and vaccines).

Novartis develops and manufactures innovative drugs. Key areas of drug development are oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic. It also has an established medicines business, which includes off-patent franchises. The company sells its products globally, with the United States constituting close to one-third of total revenue.

AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company headquartered on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It discovers, develops and sells prescription medicines and vaccines in oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease, respiratory and immunology, and rare diseases, with medicines such as Tagrisso, Farxiga, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu. The company earns revenue from branded drug sales to health systems worldwide, and in 2025 reported revenue of $58.7 billion, operating income of $13.7 billion and about 89,900 employees. It was formed on 6 April 1999 through the merger of Sweden's Astra AB and the UK's Zeneca Group, itself demerged from Imperial Chemical Industries in 1993. AstraZeneca is listed in London, Stockholm and New York and is led by chief executive Pascal Soriot. It has expanded through acquisitions including MedImmune, a majority stake in Acerta Pharma in 2016 and Alexion Pharmaceuticals in 2021.

Amgen is a leader in biotechnology-based human therapeutics. Flagship drugs include red blood cell boosters Epogen and Aranesp, immune system boosters Neupogen and Neulasta, and Enbrel and Otezla for inflammatory diseases. Amgen introduced its first cancer therapeutic, Vectibix, in 2006 and markets bone-strengthening drugs Prolia/Xgeva (approved 2010) and Evenity (2019). The acquisition of Onyx Pharmaceuticals bolstered the firm's therapeutic oncology portfolio with Kyprolis. Recent launches include Repatha (cholesterol-lowering), Aimovig (migraine), Lumakras (lung cancer), and Tezspire (asthma). The 2023 Horizon acquisition brought several rare-disease drugs, including thyroid eye disease drug Tepezza. Amgen also has a growing biosimilar portfolio.

Gilead Sciences develops and markets therapies to treat and prevent life-threatening infectious diseases, with the core of its portfolio focused on HIV and hepatitis B and C. Gilead's acquisition of Pharmasset brought rights to hepatitis C drug Sovaldi, which is also part of newer combination regimens that remain standards of care. Gilead is also growing its presence in the oncology market via acquisitions, led by CAR-T cell therapy Yescarta/Tecartus (from Kite) and breast and bladder cancer therapy Trodelvy (from Immunomedics).

With roughly one-third of the global branded diabetes treatment market, Novo Nordisk is the world's leading provider of diabetes care products. Based in Denmark, the company manufactures and markets a variety of human and modern insulins for patients with diabetes, as well as injectable and oral GLP-1 therapies, across its obesity and diabetes care segment. Novo also has a rare disease segment (contributing less than 10% of revenue) that specializes in protein therapies for hemophilia and other disorders.

Pfizer is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms, with annual sales of roughly $60 billion. While it historically sold many types of healthcare products and chemicals, now prescription drugs and vaccines account for the majority of sales. Top sellers include pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13 and cardiology drugs Vyndaqel and Eliquis. Pfizer sells these products globally, with international sales representing 40% of total sales. Within international sales, emerging markets are a major contributor.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is a global biotechnology company that discovers and develops small-molecule drugs for the treatment of serious diseases. Its key drugs are Kalydeco, Orkambi, Symdeko, and Trikafta/Kaftrio, and Alyftrek for cystic fibrosis, where Vertex therapies remain the standard of care globally. Vertex has diversified its portfolio through Casgevy, a gene-editing therapy for beta thalassemia and sickle-cell disease, and Journavx, a non-opioid pain medication approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain in adults. Additionally, Vertex is evaluating small-molecule inhibitors of APOL1-mediated kidney diseases. Vertex is also investigating cell therapies to deliver a potential functional cure for type 1 diabetes.