During its IPO on the NASDAQ in 2019, the German biotech group was struggling to attract investors. It planned to sell 13.2 million shares in the IPO at a unit price of $18-$20, but the company had to scale down its plans, releasing only 10 million shares at $15. At the time, BioNTech specialised in individualised cancer treatments with a pipeline of about 20 compounds. It did not yet have any products on the market and had never generated a profit.

But that was then. In January 2020, the company's future changed radically when CEO Uğur Şahin, who co-founded BioNTech with his wife Özlem Türeci, decided to pivot entirely and develop a COVID-19 vaccine using mRNA technology. After receiving €375 million from the German government and partnering with US giant Pfizer in March 2020, the small biotech made the right decision: in December, BNT162b2 was the first vaccine authorised in the United States, European Union and Switzerland. "Seeing people benefit from our work is very touching," said Türeci, in an interview with German magazine Spiegel in early January.

Due to the coronavirus, BioNTech and its partner Pfizer, which plan to produce two billion doses in 2021, are expected to share $15 to $20 billion in revenue in 2021. And after that? The German biotech will likely return to its original focus: "I think that we have a realistic opportunity to fundamentally change the way cancer is treated," said Şahin in Spiegel. And now that mRNA technology has proven itself effective against the coronavirus, BioNTech is no longer struggling to attract investors. In 2020, the company's share price increased 160% and analysts are now split on whether to purchase or hold shares.

The news made headlines. In February 2020, the Beijing Genomics Institute, better known as BGI Group, announced that it could sequence the human genome for $100, which is seven times less than with sequencing machines from the global industry leader Illumina.

Using genome editing tools, this US company develops genetically-­modified food products, such as a soybean oil that is low in bad fats. It has been on the market since 2019 and claims to be a healthier choice (see Swissquote Magazine, March 2019).

Cellectis is developing UCART19, a promising cancer treatment based on genome editing that is currently in phase I clinical trials. The company has five other treatment candidates that are less advanced (see Swissquote Magazine, March 2019).

When Jennifer Doudna (American) and Emmanuelle Charpentier (French) were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in October 2020, a revolutionary discovery came to light: the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Behind this rather unsophisticated name lies a tool that can cut and modify the DNA of any organism, including that of humans. "These ‘genetic scissors’ have only been around for eight years, but they already hold great promise for humanity, offering the hope of curing genetic diseases," explains Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, a mem­ber of the Nobel Committee, at the announcement.

To develop these therapies of the future, Charpentier founded the Zug-based company Crispr Therapeutics in 2013, where she now acts as a scientific advisor. This biotech company is the most advanced in the therapeutic application of the CRISPR system: its drug CTX001, for haemoglobinopathies, is the first of its kind to have entered clinical trials, with two patients receiving treatment in early 2019. Preliminary results, published in December 2019, were promising.

The company (one of whose main shareholders is pharma giant Bayer) also has three anti-cancer drugs in phase I clinical trials, as well as less advanced treatments for genetic diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Most analysts recommend buying shares, which have already risen by more than 130% since the start of 2020.

The German biotech, which is developing a COVID-19 vaccine currently in phase III trials, is a pioneer in the mRNA field. Created in 2000, well before its competitors BioNTech (2008) and Moderna (2010), it has in its portfolio other prophylactic vaccines, particularly for yellow fever, as well as mRNA-based immunotherapies for several cancers.

With around 10 drug candidates in its pipeline, Editas Medicine, which uses the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing method, has a robust portfolio. That said, all its drugs are still in the early stages of development.

A specialist in genomic cancer screenings, Exact Sciences has grown considerably in recent years, acquiring Genomic Health in 2019 for $2.8 billion and Thrive Earlier Detection in October 2020 for $2.15 billion.

A small Lyon-based company, genOway creates genetically modified lab mice using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. This is a booming sector for drug testing, so the company has a promising potential outlook (see Swissquote Magazine, September 2020).

With a touchscreen on top of a black or white plastic box, Illumina devices look a bit like large printers. Upon first glance, it's hard to tell that these machines are the driver of the genetic revolution. But in fact, they produce more than 90% of sequencing data worldwide. In other words, they read the vast majority of DNA studied in the world, leaving only crumbs for Illumina's competitors (Roche, Thermo Fisher and BGI).

How did the Californian company become such a monopoly? To find the answer, we need to go back to the early 2000s. At the time, scientists used the Sanger method to sequence DNA. This process, in which each letter of DNA (A, G, T, C) is read individually, was long and expensive. Illumina had another solution: bombarding fragments of DNA with lasers. Each of the four letters reflected back a different light, making it possible to use cameras and algorithms to read DNA more easily: in 2001, sequencing the entire human genome cost $100 million, whereas now it costs just $700. The price reduction is so remarkable that it is now referred to as "Flatley's Law" in honour of Jay Flatley, the head of Illumina from 1999 to 2016.

To protect its discoveries, Illumina filed more than 900 patents, monopolising the market. And the company essentially built an empire, building more than 17,000 sequencers around the world. But with lower sequencing costs, replacing the machines and selling the related consumables is becoming a less lucrative business. So Illumina is increasingly focused on developing cloud solutions to analyse the data generated by its systems. The goal is to become the Google of genetic data. Most analysts recommend holding shares, which rose by 11.5% in 2020.

With partnerships with Novartis and Regeneron, Intellia Therapeutics is developing seven treatments using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, particularly for genetic diseases and certain types of cancers.

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing is becoming more widespread. This is demonstrated by the success of unlisted company 23andMe, which offers members of the public the opportunity to order a saliva test online for $199 to detect their genetic predisposition to a dozen or so diseases. But this type of service raises a few issues: "When patients receive the results, they are not in a position to interpret them," stresses Professor Marc Abramowicz, head of the genetic medicine department of the Geneva University Hospitals group (HUG) and director of the Centre for Genetic Medicine. "This can cause a certain amount of distress, and even anxiety if the results are bad."

In response to this problem, American company Invitae, a specialist in genetic screening tests, has developed a more sophisticated approach, whereby customers can order genetic testing kits online for between $250 and $350. Unlike companies such as 23andMe, the test is approved by an "independent" expert who judges whether the customer really needs it. If the test is deemed pertinent, the kit is sent to the customer, who takes the saliva sample himself and sends it back to Invitae. The results are then made available online. The company strongly recommends that its customers have their results analysed by a doctor – an additional service that Invitae provides through its partnerships with telemedicine providers PWNHealth and Genome Medical.

Invitae’s innovative approach takes advantage of two booming sectors: genetic testing and telemedicine. Most analysts recommend holding shares, which soared by more than 150% in 2020.

The US biotech made all the headlines in 2020 with its mRNA vaccine to fight SARS‑CoV‑2, the second vaccine to be approved by Swissmedic. The company, which is expected to generate nearly $13.2 billion in revenue in 2021 thanks to the vaccine, also has another 15 products in its development pipeline (see Swissquote Magazine, September 2020).

The story of Myriad Genetics is now case law. In 1996, the US company was the first to market a genetic diagnostic test that measured the predisposition for breast and ovarian cancer. To protect its invention, the company filed two patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are closely associated with those cancers. This privatisation of DNA became the subject of a global public debate, with a fundamental question: can human genes be patented? Myriad Genetics lost the battle definitively in 2013 when the US Supreme Court ruled that DNA could not be patented. The decision ended its monopoly on breast cancer genetic testing. Since the ruling, many tests have been developed by competitors, including those outside the medical industry. Companies such as 23andMe offer this type of DNA testing directly to consumers without a medical prescription.

This is because the market has skyrocketed, thanks to Angelina Jolie. In 2013, when genetic testing was still largely unknown to the general public and even health professionals, the American actress wrote an article for the New York Times announcing that she had undergone a preventative double mastectomy at the age of 39 because she is a carrier of the BRCA1 mutation. Her article, titled "My Medical Choice", caused many people to take an interest in their genetic risk factors. The phenomenon was dubbed the "Angelina effect" and the portfolio of available genetic testing has expanded ever since. Myriad Genetics, which is only one of the hundreds of companies selling genetic testing, offers more than 15 DNA tests for diseases such as depression, melanoma and colorectal cancer. Most analysts recommend holding shares, which have gone up and down for several years.

Specialising in genetic testing, Natera launched the non-invasive prenatal test Panorama in 2013. The flagship product can detect genetic diseases in an embryo by testing a blood sample from the mother, avoiding a much more invasive amniocentesis.

A front runner in genome editing, American company Sangamo Therapeutics has some 15 drugs under development, its most advanced being SB-525 for haemophilia A, which is currently undergoing phase III clinical trials.

The US multinational Thermo Fisher Scientific supplies research material to laboratories, including sequencing devices. 

To promote the German series Biohackers, released in August 2020, Netflix stored the first episode on artificial DNA, synthesized by US company Twist Bioscience. What if we stored digital data in DNA, rather than in the cloud? The rather surprising idea is garnering quite an interest from digital giants. With its density and very long lifespan, DNA is an ideal material for storage. According to an article published in Science Magazine in 2017, a single gramme of synthetic DNA can store 215 petabytes of data – the equivalent of 100 million films! In 2018, researchers from ETHZ succeeded in storing the entire Mezzanine album by Massive Attack on a few strands of DNA. "This method allows us to archive music for hundreds of thousands of years," said Robert Grass, professor at ETHZ. Comparatively, music storage on a CD will only last for about 30 years.

To explore this potential, in November 2020 software giant Microsoft and hard drive specialist Western Digital announced the creation of a "DNA Storage Alliance" with Illumina and Twist Bioscience. Within this alliance, Illumina will supply its expertise in reading DNA, so that the stored data can be accessed. But the biggest challenge is producing synthetic DNA to build a new type of hard drive. And that’s where Twist Bioscience comes in. While the cost of producing synthetic DNA remains prohibitive (nearly $3,500 per megabyte), Twist has developed a technology that produces DNA on silicon chips, which could drastically reduce the price.

The stakes are high. Beyond data storage, synthetic DNA is seen as the next big thing in genomics after sequencing, since it could have applications in a variety of fields such as biofuels, biotherapeutics and biomaterials. For example, the company Impossible Foods has already used synthetic DNA to produce a haemoglobin-equivalent that makes its artificial meat "bloody". Twist Bioscience is currently leading this growing market, but several private start-ups are hard at work, such as DNA Technologies, Eurofins Genomics and DNA Script. Most analysts recommend holding shares in Twist, which already increased by more than 540% since the start of 2020.

American company Veracyte is developing genome tests to avoid unnecessary surgery in the treatment of various cancers. In December 2020, German giant Bayer extended the scope of its collaboration with Veracyte to include the molecular diagnosis of thyroid cancer.