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# Global Biotech Development Surge Continues: Tufts Study
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/global-biotech-development-surge-continues-tufts-study/
- Published: 2018-11-13T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:44:13.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5142805

The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development says the global biotech revolution that launched in the early 1980s is continuing, “offering the promise of a cornucopia of novel products to treat a wide range of diseases.” Using data from the center’s *Comprehensive Biotech Data Book* to be published in Spring 2019, the Center’s latest [*Impact Report*](https://csdd.tufts.edu/impact-reports/?ref=fdaweb.com) (purchase or subscription required) finds that 375 biotech products have received FDA marketing approval since the 1980s, from 18 in the period 1980-89 to 179 in 2010-18, with biotech products now accounting for more than 30% of all FDA new drug and biologic approvals.

The report says that since 2002, pharmaceutical company partnerships have been the largest funding source for biotech development, providing 44% of all biotech financing last year. And biotech companies account for 41% of annual revenue for the top 20 drug companies.

The report demonstrates that biotech development has steadily accelerated since the 1980s. Three product types accounted for 82% of all approvals — mAbs (23%), peptides (19%), and recombinant proteins (40%). New product classes now include fusion proteins, bacterial and viral vaccines, RNA inhibition, gene therapy, and cell therapy.

Biotech sales have experienced “explosive growth,” Tufts says, on their own and as a share of total drug sales. From 2002-17, biotech product sales jumped five-fold, and biotech sales as a share of total drug sales more than doubled. In 2017, nine of the top 10 drugs selling worldwide were biotech products.

The report also indicates that biotech products account for 31% of all approved products with an orphan drug designation.