CREATE Medicines Funding, Investors & Competitors

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.

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.

Biosplice Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology firm headquartered in San Diego, California. The company develops small-molecule modulators of splicing factors to treat degenerative diseases, fibrosis, and cancers, with lead candidates in phase II trials for osteoarthritis and dry age-related macular degeneration.

Biomat USA is a network of plasma collection centers operated by Grifols producing source plasma for therapies treating hemophilia, immune deficiencies, and trauma. Centers in the United States offer donor compensation and community support programs, contributing to global supplies of albumin, immunoglobulins, and clotting factors.

ArsenalBio is a South San Francisco-based, clinical-stage cell therapy company that engineers CAR T-cell therapies using CRISPR-based genome editing and logic-gating technology. Its pipeline targets solid tumors including ovarian, kidney, and prostate cancers, with its lead candidate, AB-2100, in Phase 1/2 trials for clear-cell renal cell carcinoma under a collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The platform is designed to address T-cell exhaustion, tumor specificity, and genome toxicity, challenges that have limited CAR T therapies in solid tumors.

BioRay Pharmaceuticals is a Shanghai-headquartered biopharma with R&D centers in Taizhou, Hangzhou, San Diego, and over 1,400 employees focused on immunology therapies. It commercializes three products in China for autoimmune diseases including Telitacicept for SLE, with a pipeline of 20 preclinical and 10 clinical assets targeting cancer and inflammation. Founded in 2010, BioRay operates GMP facilities for full-cycle development.

Rakuten Medical is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing photoimmunotherapy for cancer treatment using its Alluminox platform. Its lead product, ASP-1929, gained approval in Japan for head and neck cancer. Rakuten Medical conducts global trials and offers expanded access programs via rakuten-med.com across multiple countries.

FibroGen is a biopharmaceutical company discovering therapies based on hypoxia-inducible factor and connective tissue growth factor biology for anemia, fibrosis, and cancer. Its flagship product roxadustat, a HIF-PH inhibitor, received approval in China in 2018 and Japan in 2019 for anemia in chronic kidney disease, with ongoing global trials. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, FibroGen partners with AstraZeneca and Astellas for commercialization in multiple regions.

BenevolentAI is a London-headquartered clinical-stage company using artificial intelligence for drug discovery, listed on Euronext Amsterdam under BAI. Its platform supports 13 named programs and over 10 exploratory ones, with collaborations including AstraZeneca on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Facilities in Cambridge and New York enable wet-lab validation of AI-generated candidates.

Umoja Biopharma engineers in vivo CAR T-cell therapies that reprogram patients' T cells to attack solid tumors and hematological malignancies resistant to existing treatments. Seattle-headquartered, the company advances its AlloVector platform for localized immune cell activation without ex vivo manipulation. Partnerships with Biogen and Takeda support clinical progression in oncology pipelines targeting glioblastoma and other cancers.

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

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.

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, respiratory, 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.

A merger between Astra of Sweden and Zeneca Group of the United Kingdom formed AstraZeneca in 1999. The firm sells branded drugs across a number of major therapeutic areas, including oncology (about 40% of total revenue), cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic (25%), rare disease (17%), and respiratory and immunology (15%). The majority of sales comes from international markets, with the United States representing close to one third of its sales.

Thermo Fisher Scientific sells scientific instruments and laboratory equipment, diagnostics consumables, and life science reagents. The firm operates through four segments as of year-end 2024 (revenue figures include some cross-segment revenue): analytical technologies (17% of sales); specialty diagnostic products (11%); life science solutions (23%); and lab products and services, which includes CRO services (the remainder).

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.

With roughly one-third of the global branded diabetes treatment market, Novo Nordisk is the leading provider of diabetes care products in the world. Based in Denmark, the company manufactures and markets a variety of human and modern insulins, injectable diabetes treatments such as GLP-1 therapy, oral antidiabetic agents, and obesity treatments. Novo also has a biopharmaceutical segment (contributing less than 10% of revenue) that specializes in protein therapies for hemophilia and other disorders.