Biotechnology started with beer brewing. More specifically, early 19th century efforts to better understand the biological process behind industrial fermentation. Since then it’s evolved into a legitimate scientific field that can manipulate genes and engineer cells in order to design medicines around specific biological targets. Today, biotech companies have more ways than ever to tackle diseases once considered difficult or impossible to treat. Gene editing, RNA therapies, genomic testing, precision biologics and AI-driven drug discovery are driving unprecedented clinical breakthroughs, with the Food and Drug Administration approving 46 novel drugs in 2025.
Below are some of the biggest players in biotech whipping up next-generation therapies straight from their lab — and all of them are publicly traded.
Top Publicly Traded Biotech Companies
- Eli Lilly (LLY)
- Pfizer (PFE)
- Amgen (AMGN)
- Gilead Sciences (GILD)
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX)
Top Publicly Traded Biotech Companies
Headquarters: Tarrytown, New York
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: REGN
Regeneron engineers biologic drugs for eye conditions, inflammatory diseases and cancer using its proprietary VelociSuite antibody technology. Based out of New York, its dedicated Genetics Center sequences human DNA to uncover novel drug targets, helping develop medicines such as Dupixent for inflammatory conditions and Eylea for retinal eye diseases.
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: TEM
Tempus AI combines genomic testing with clinical data and artificial intelligence to help doctors choose treatments for individual patients while also helping drug developers find suitable patients and therapies for clinical trials. Its data platform has logged more than 45 million de-identified patient journeys — including 1.5 million with sequenced data — feeding its AI models millions of examples of how patients were diagnosed and treated, as well as how they responded to different therapies.
Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: MRNA
Moderna built its drug-development platform around messenger RNA, turning the technology into vaccines and expanding it into cancer and rare-disease treatments. Its personalized cancer vaccine with Merck uses mRNA to train the immune system to recognize mutations specific to a patient’s tumor, with late-stage trials now testing the approach in melanoma and other cancers.
Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: VRTX
Vertex Pharmaceuticals revolutionized cystic fibrosis care by developing CFTR modulators — therapies that correct the defective protein at the source of the disease rather than just clearing lung mucus. The company now applies that same targeted approach to genetic blood disorders and acute pain. More recently, Vertex secured the first FDA approval for a CRISPR-based therapy branded as Casgevy.
Headquarters: Thousand Oaks, California
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: AMGN
Amgen helped establish modern biotechnology by turning advances in molecular biology into commercially successful medicines. In 1983, its scientists cloned the gene for erythropoietin, used to create EPOGEN — widely regarded as the first blockbuster medicine produced by the biotechnology industry. Today, Amgen primarily focuses on biologic therapies for heart disease, rare conditions and hard-to-treat tumors.
Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: GRAL
GRAIL develops blood tests that are designed to detect multiple cancers before symptoms appear. Its Galleri test uses genomic sequencing and machine learning to identify cancer-associated signals in the blood. This approach is currently being studied in a clinical program involving more than 380,000 participants and 300 scientific publications.
Headquarters: Mainz, Germany
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: BNTX
BioNTech helped pioneer the use of messenger RNA in medicine, rising to global prominence after co-developing one of the world’s first widely deployed Covid-19 vaccines with Pfizer. Since then, the company has continued investing heavily in its original mission of developing personalized cancer treatments. Its pipeline spans mRNA-based immunotherapies, vaccines, cell therapies and antibody-drug conjugates, with a particular focus on harnessing the immune system to target tumors more precisely. BioNTech has also positioned itself as a leader in the emerging field of individualized medicine.
Headquarters: New York City, New York
Stock Exchange: NYSE
Ticker Symbol: PFE
Pfizer develops therapies and vaccines across oncology, immunology and infectious diseases that became a household name after developing the first authorized Covid-19 vaccine in the United States. Its global portfolio bridges BioNTech-partnered mRNA technology with next-generation antibody-drug conjugates following its Seagen acquisition. The drugmaking giant backs this commercial reach with an active pipeline of dozens of clinical projects.
Headquarters: Indianapolis, Indiana
Stock Exchange: NYSE
Ticker Symbol: LLY
Eli Lilly’s medicines treat diabetes, obesity, cancer, autoimmune conditions and other disease areas. Its blockbuster tirzepatide drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, have made the company a major player in metabolic medicine in particular, with the GLP-1s accounting for about 60 percent of its total revenue annually.
Headquarters: Foster City, California
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: GILD
Gilead Sciences built its reputation developing antiviral treatments for HIV and hepatitis, and has since expanded deeply into cancer and cell therapy. Through its Kite subsidiary, the company has developed two CAR-T treatments, Yescarta and Tecartus, which reached more than 33,500 patients by the end of 2025 alone.
