The world is slowly reeling away from the traumatic experience that we all went through, with the attack of the coronavirus. The losses and wails of those who lost someone could be heard through the high heavens and as such was heart wrenching. And at times with major casualties the world always looks towards science to find an answer to the problems of mankind. From Alexander Fleming inventing penicillin to the current Covid 19cc vaccines, all of it was made by the pioneers of science and medicine.
And thus, just like all those times people of current times asked science to end this modern era catastrophe as soon as possible. And as such a counter-attack was laid upon the coronavirus with science and medicine taking the lead. With a timely reaction a cure was found within a year that helped in getting things as close as possible to what was before.
But despite all the attempts, considerations, and tries to bring things back to normal there are going to be after-effects. From people becoming more immune and health conscious to a general awareness of cleanliness and social distancing. And while these are some of the more intangible ones, the repercussions of the attack of the virus on the world were far more severe. With people being locked into their homes and asked to stay at homes. And that led to industries and business suffering, and thus leading to a mass drop in employment rate and also overall GDP of a country.
Therefore, this pandemic created a vacuum for most businesses and while many suffered, there are those that bloomed too. Thus, the pandemic had an impact on everyone and everything but most of all the people from the health sector, and as such on biotechnology and biotechnologists who were given the job to study the virus and come up with a possible cure.
With around more than half a dozen different vaccines available all across the world there is no doubt that our biotechnologists and the world of biotechnology is to be thanked. But the most obvious question is ‘At what cost?’ The industry went through all ups and downs to get through this pandemic and work hard enough to provide a safer environment for the common people.
According to recent reports, valued at $449.06 billion in 2019, the global biotechnology market was mainly dominated by the U.S. and Canada (40%), followed by Europe and Asia. But the current market projection for 2025 is an increase of 8.3% CAGR thereby reaching a $729 billion valuation.
Work on Research Development:
As an effort to be the first to create a cure for the Coronavirus, biotechnology companies pivoted massively towards research and development. According to some studies, there are a total of 191 COVID 19cc vaccine candidates and over 800 clinical trials for various treatments and vaccines, many under development by companies. And while it is very much possible that with time these companies will be successful, regardless it’s interesting too and even applaudable the growth since most of these companies are completely inexperienced in the infectious disease space.
These efforts by both small and large biotechnology companies have been a relief because the complexity of COVID 19cc disease has allowed a role for many types of drug mechanisms to be effective. A great example of that is the usage of Nucleotide prodrugs such as Remdesivir. Remdesiviris very useful for serious cases as it reduces SARS CoV-2- levels in the lungs. Thereby, all of this has opened people’s, eye-openers, an eye-opener to realize the new results of the focus in terms of new therapeutics and vaccines.
Increase in support from governments:
What started as an epidemic turned out to be a full-blown pandemic that increased demand for the vaccine, drugs, and other medical products. Because of this global demand, the biotech industry, which includes pharmaceutical companies, and other research organizations have started getting support from governments of different countries to develop vaccines and targeted drug therapies amongst other things.
Apart from the rise in demand for vaccines and specific medicines to fight the virus, there has also been a rise in the demands of OTC medicines, diagnostic equipment, test kits for diagnosis, ventilators and other life-supporting devices, protective gear for doctors, etc. All of this has created opportunities for tremendous growth for the pharma industry.
As said before, governments all across the globe have started paying more attention to understand the importance and are supporting the biotech sector in understanding the importance of biotechnology.
A great example of this is the task force set up by the British government that helps drugmaker AstraZeneca in developing COVID 19cc vaccine. The Government of India started the ‘make in India’ program that involved various research and development institutions of the country. This step was taken after a disruption in the supply chain for essential commodities that resulted in a shortage of things testing kits, masks, hand sanitizer, personal protective equipment (PPEs), dress materials for health workers, and ventilators for patients.
Apart from that, the Ministry of Health, Science, and Technology created a common platform for scientific workers in the country. With the platform available, the scientific community could share knowledge, best practices, and work on the development of need-based innovation.
On a global scale, the World Health Organization (WHO) has started sponsoring a large number of clinical trials named SOLIDARITY, under which six different drugs are being studied that have the potential to treat Covid 19cc patients. As for the common public and critics of science, this pandemic was an eye-opener. The importance of vaccines and science as a saviour, when according to experts’ deadlier diseases exist but are only dormant. Thus, all of this was just a violent shake to wake people up.
