After a major spike during the COVID-19 pandemic years, cell and gene therapy investment has since slowed down considerably. The figures now look pale in comparison to the $19.9 billion made in 2020 and the $22.7 billion made in 2021, with levels falling to $12.6 billion in 2022 and $11.7 billion in 2023. This has led to many gene therapy companies in particular needing to cut programs or lay off workers to save money. In this article, we explore what is behind the investment slowdown and detail the unfortunate consequences of this. As promising as gene therapies are, one of the main issues for investors is that these types of treatments come with a lot of risk and, even if they are successful, it takes a long time for them to produce monetary rewards, as they require much longer than other types of therapies to advance through the clinic before eventually reaching the market. “We’re largely seeing investments shifting to things that are de-risked,” said Jon Norris, managing director at HSBC Innovation Banking, in a statement to Biopharma Dive. “Cell and gene therapy is becoming an area we know better, because there are products that have advanced through development, but it still doesn’t compare to the number of approvals and drugs commercially available in small molecules or biologics.”

Full story : Why investments are dipping in the gene therapy biotech space post COVID?