2024-05-15 08:45:00 ET
As you may have heard, there's a new trend in biotech lingo wherein companies call themselves "TechBio" rather than "biotech" to emphasize their forward-thinking about the role of information technology. Biotechs like Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) , Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RXRX) , and Schrödinger (NASDAQ: SDGR) could easily be described by the term, and some, like Recursion, even describe themselves that way.
But what does this new term actually imply, and is it a relevant signal for investors to pay attention to? Let's dig into the first question and find out.
In case it wasn't obvious, the term "TechBio" puts the abbreviation for "technology" before the abbreviation for "biology." That speaks to the perspective that the concept's proponents seek to signal that they have. Rather than being the biology-first company of traditional biotech, where committing good old-fashioned human effort to plan and then do experiments in the laboratory is the path to success, TechBio reframes the scientific challenge of producing new medicines and biological technologies as closer to being an industrial engineering problem.
For further details see:
What's the Difference Between Biotech Stocks and TechBio Stocks?