What is Life Sciences and Should You Invest?

Life Sciences is an investment category all its own. But it may be new to you, so if you want to know “What is Life Sciences?”, you’ve come to the right place.

The term Life Sciences covers a multitude of investment themes, each with biology at its heart. Basically, anything involved in studying living organisms, such as plants, animals and humans, and life processes comes under the Life Sciences umbrella.

This includes biopharmaceutical, cannabis, psilocybin, medical manufacturing, genetics, and bioproduct stocks

What is Life Sciences?

The principal term ‘Life Sciences’ covers a spectrum of investment opportunities via companies involved in studying nature, living organisms and life processes.

The Life Sciences industry covers biotech, pharma, genetics, and medical devices. These are further differentiated by specialist research into psychedelics, stem cell biology, rare disease drug development and delivery and much more. 

The companies aim to make significant technological advancements to commercialize medications, therapeutics and devices. The road to commercialization usually requires substantial monetary investment in R&D, clinical trials, patent applications and a rigorous regulatory approval process. 

Companies operating in the Life Sciences domain are involved in many variations on the theme. Some examples include:

• Re-purposing drugs to research already approved drugs for new disease applications

• Medical and recreational cannabis, CBD and psychedelic medicine and therapeutic products

• The treatment of a broad range of infectious diseases

• Novel diagnostic testing kits and devices

• Bio-technology research and development

• R&D in genetics

• Developing medical devices

• Dietary supplements, food additives

• Nutraceuticals (nutritional ingredients)

• Cosmeceuticals (therapeutic cosmetics)

• Food processing and design using chemistry, and microbiology

Interest in Life Sciences is Accelerating

The point of the Life Sciences sector is to improve the quality of life for individuals globally.

With COVID-19 putting health and wellness under the spotlight and climate change driving a need to innovate global food supplies, demand for an improved quality of life is soaring. 

Therefore, interest in Life Sciences has boomed in recent years, and innovation in the sector is accelerating. Rapid advancements in science and technology are transforming the food, cosmetics, and healthcare industries. Even governments recognize the need to embrace the sector and make it easier for start-ups to succeed.

For instance, In 2021, the UK government published a Life Sciences Vision directive. The purpose of its 10-year strategy is to make improvements that will help resolve major healthcare challenges of today, including cancer and dementia.

However, a lot of money is required to truly progress in this field, which is why investment banks are heavily investing in the Life Sciences space. For instance, Blackstone Life Sciences (BXLS) backs the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical…