The bioeconomy will carry us through

And not just because we’ll create the therapies and vaccines to beat COVID-19. BIO’s new report released yesterday takes a look at the strength of the bioeconomy. 

BIO’s report, The Bioscience Economy: Propelling Life-Saving Treatments, Supporting State & Local Communities, analyzes the bioscience industry’s economic footprint, including the industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bioscience economy was at record strength when the pandemic hit. The bioscience industry employed 1.87 million across more than 101,000 U.S. companies in 2018, with a total economic impact of $2.6 trillion as measured by overall output. 

And small and mid-sized companies are driving it, comprising 71% of total industry employment and 99% of business establishments. 

Even with the crisis, bioscience remains strong. As of mid-May 2020, there were more than 400 drug programs in development aimed at COVID-19, including 100 vaccines and 135 antivirals. 

Small companies are also driving the innovation we need right now. They have accounted for at least 60% of all FDA drug approvals each year over the past three years—and they’re moving quickly on COVID-19.   

What they’re saying: “The bioscience industry has a strong track record of near continuous growth and will be more important than ever to help end the pandemic and rebuild our global economy,” said Ryan Helwig, Principal and Project Director with TEConomy Partners, our report partner.

Read the full report including fact sheets for all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico at www.bio.org/jobs. 

Today at BIO Digital,Dave Thomas, BIO’s VP of Industry Analysis, will talk about the future outlook for the bioeconomy and investment (11 AM ET/8 AM PT). Then, our three-part live plenary will take a look at vaccines in development, from companies large and small (2 PM ET/11 AM PT).

Follow along on our BIO Digital Live Blog.

More Health Care News:

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Reuters: What are antibody therapies and who is developing them for COVID-19?
“While some potential vaccines have emerged in the global race to find a way to stop the spread of COVID-19, many scientists and researchers believe antibody based therapies hold great promise for treating people already infected with the disease.”

A new study, which Nature calls “the most comprehensive analysis of coronaviruses in China,” has even more evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, most likely originated in a bat—but there’s still a lot of mystery about the precise where, when, and how.

The study, from the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology, among others, analyzed the DNA of 1,240 coronaviruses found naturally in bats in China and determined SARS-CoV-2 “is most closely related to a group of viruses found in horseshoe bats,” reports Nature. 

How do they know? Another coronavirus that they found in a horseshoe bat in China’s Yunnan province shares a whopping 96% of its DNA with SARS-CoV-2. 

But there was likely an intermediary between the bat and the human. “No bat viruses found so far are similar enough to SARS-CoV-2 to be a direct ancestor. So while the new virus could have been spread to people directly from bats, researchers think it’s more likely that it passed through an intermediate animal,” continues Nature. 

And while we may never know exactly how the virus got to humans, it’s important to try to find out—so we can better understand the epidemiology of the virus and find effective treatments and vaccines, and equally important, prevent the next zoonotic disease pandemic. 

Yes, this is why we need One Health. Last week we sent a letter urging Congress to pass bipartisan One Health legislation so we can better coordinate research into the links between human, animal, and environmental health—and hopefully stop the next pandemic in its tracks.

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