Life science, Healthcare, Pharma, and Biotech inter-relations

Sci-Tech Snippets-11.

Essential taxonomy with examples

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Parag Mahajani

What is Life Science?

• A broad field of biology-based science that studies all living organisms, from the smallest viruses to the largest whales.
• Life scientists study the structure, function, and evolution of living organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the environment.
• Examples: agricultural science, medical sciences, and pharmacy

What is Healthcare?

• A subset of life science
• Prevention, improvement, and maintenance of the physical, mental, and emotional health of an individual or community using a range of services
• Services: medical, insurance, surgical, rehabilitation, and therapies
• Examples: hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation services, and medical services

What is a Pharmaceutical?

• A medicinal product to treat, prevent, or manage disease(s).
• Drug composition: simple or complex smaller molecules with low molecular weight.
• Types: drugs, vaccines, biologics, or medical devices or apparatus.
• Examples: antibiotics, pain relievers, and antidepressants.

What is Pharma?

• A company that researches, discovers, develops, manufactures, performs clinical trials, and markets synthesised pharmaceuticals. A subset of healthcare.
• Regulation agency: CDSCO — India and CDER — USA FDA
• Development: decades long and costs billions of dollars
• Examples: Roche, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer.

What is Biotechnology?

• Study of the combination of both the living organism, their parts, and a group of technologies to develop and make different products and harness cellular and biomolecular processes.
• Examples: vaccines, blood and its components, tissues, somatic cells, allergens, and recombinant therapeutic proteins.
• Applications: medicine, agriculture, and industries like food, energy, etc.
• Products: wine, bread, biofuels, COVID-19 vaccines, and penicillin.

What is Biopharma?

• Any pharma drug made or extracted from, or partially synthesized from biological sources.
• Typically complex and larger molecules derived from living organisms, such as proteins, antibodies, and nucleic acids.
• Sometimes known as biologic. Uses biotechnology.
• Examples: Interferon-Alfa (for leukemia) and insulin.

Deep dive

About life sciences and related technologies

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