Over the past several years, New York City has taken significant measures to bolster its biotech community. In 2016, Governor Cuomo announced a $650 million initiative in an effort to to strengthen the city’s growing life sciences cluster. Alongside these efforts, VC funding for NYC’s biotech sector has grown tremendously in recent years, led by organizations like NYCEDC. Recognizing the robustness of biotech hubs like San Francisco and Philadelphia, NYC is eagerly investing in its burgeoning life sciences ecosystem — and it seems to have certainly paid off.
As biotech companies continue to emerge across NYC, the city has been placed at the forefront of the nation’s life sciences scene. The city’s cluster of biotech organizations are tackling a broad range of global health issues. While one has created a smart wearable device designed to gauge sleep deprivation, another is pioneering a revolutionary new way to accelerate the discovery and treatment of cancer. There’s no question that NYC’s biotech community is rich with talent, making the city an undisputed, up-and-coming life sciences capital.
Take a look at the biotech companies in NYC strengthening the city’s status as a life sciences hub.
Biotech Companies In NYC To Know
- Flatiron Health
- Paige
- Imagen Technologies
- Kallyope
- MeiraGTx
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Axsome Therapeutics
- Merck
Founded: 1848
Focus: Pharmaceutical Research and Development
What they do: Pfizer is a global pharmaceutical company that applies advances in science and technology to develop vaccines and medical treatments, including well-known products like Zoloft and Advil. The company focuses on research and development in areas such as oncology, cardiology, immunology and neurology to address various medical conditions. Digital innovation played a crucial role in Pfizer’s partnership with BioNTech, enabling real-time predictive modeling and remote site monitoring to support large-scale clinical trials for the first FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine.
Founded: 2014
Focus: Drug Development
What they do: Formation Bio, headquartered in New York, is a pharmaceutical company that leverages AI and advanced technologies to streamline drug development. By deploying AI agents, data stacks and large language models, it optimizes every stage of the drug development process, significantly reducing the typical development timeline. This tech-driven approach allows the company to discover and develop new pharmaceutical products more efficiently, making them viable for market introduction.
Founded: 1990
Focus: Molecular Discovery
What they do: Schrödinger uses machine learning and physics to power its computational platform for drug discovery. By focusing on areas such as antibody design, peptide discovery and enzyme engineering, the platform streamlines the discovery-to-formulation pipeline and aims to ensure lifesaving drugs reach patients quickly and safely. Additionally, Schrödinger’s therapeutics group collaborates on numerous discovery programs targeting critical areas like immunology and oncology.
Founded: 2012
Focus: Software
What they do: Click Therapeutics creates software products that undergo thorough testing and review processes before doctors are able to prescribe them as part of their patients’ treatment plans. The company says its Digital Therapeutics are designed “to target the thoughts, sensations, emotions and behaviors that define the experience of your condition.”
Founded: 1891
Focus: Healthtech + Pharmaceutical
What they do: With over 130 years of experience, Merck has become a leader in the healthcare field. The company invests heavily in research and development, addressing issues like cancer and heart disease. Additionally, Merck has also produced vaccines through the years and has taken on the challenge of COVID-19, continuously working on antiviral efforts. New health concerns may arise, but Merck continues to lead the way with innovative solutions.
Founded: 2012
Focus: Oncology
What they do: Flatiron Health aims to reinvent cancer treatment by learning from the experiences of every patient. The company’s OncoCloud suite of software and services is designed to connect community oncologists, academics, hospitals, life science researchers and regulators on a unified platform. Flatiron Health’s software capabilities include document search, automated billing, data analytics, patient identification and revenue cycle management.
Founded: 1884
Focus: Oncology
What they do: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is dedicated to discovering strategies to prevent, control and ultimately cure cancer. Utilizing agile methodologies and user-centered design, the company develops a wide range of digital products in an effort to improve the patient journey. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center aims to strengthen its testing and product development to provide greater support to patients, researchers and clinicians.
Founded: 2015
Focus: Diagnostic Care
What they do: Imagen Technologies aims to eradicate errors in radiology through its machine intelligence solution for medical diagnosis. The company is currently focused on applying AI to medical image analysis in an effort to improve patient outcomes and make diagnostic care more accessible.
Founded: 2018
Focus: Oncology + AI
What they do: Paige has developed an AI-native digital pathology ecosystem in an effort to accelerate and transform the discovery and treatment of cancer. The company’s AI suite is designed to provide pathologists, clinicians and researchers with insights drawn from decades of data diagnosed by cancer experts worldwide. Paige’s platform offers secure, scalable digital slide storage, enabling pathologists to further leverage computational pathology products as they become available for clinical use.
Founded: 2015
Focus: Gut-Brain Biology
What they do: Kallyope has created a platform in an effort to unlock the therapeutic power of the gut-brain axis. The company is building a comprehensive map of gut-brain circuits and interrogating the function of these circuits in order to identify therapeutic targets that can be modulated with gut-restricted molecules. By targeting the gut-brain axis, Kallyope aims to unleash the opportunity to access and influence brain centers involved in fundamental human processes and diseases.
Founded: 2015
Focus: Gene Therapy
What they do: MeiraGTx is a clinical-stage gene therapy company dedicated to developing potentially curative treatments for patients suffering from serious diseases. The company’s gene therapy platform is primarily used for discovering new treatments for diseases of the eye, salivary gland and central nervous system. MeiraGTx currently has six programs in clinical development, which target diseases like Parkinson’s, ALS and Achromatopsia.
Founded: 2012
Focus: CNS Disorders
What they do: Axsome Therapeutics focuses on developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of central nervous systems (CNS) disorders. The company is currently focusing on discovering new treatments for disorders like Alzheimer’s, Major Depression, Narcolepsy and Fibromyalgia. Axsome has developed its own technology called MoSEIC, also called Molecular Solubility Enhanced Inclusion Complex, which creates a buffered drug-carrier complex combined with a pH modifier in order to improve the rate and degree of drug absorption.
Founded: 2015
Focus: Cognitive Health Assessments
What they do: BrainCheck offers mobile testing for measuring cognitive health that is designed for use by both providers and individuals. Patients can take the company’s neurocognitive assessments through an online portal, which allows physicians to provide cognitive health education, remote monitoring and cognitive care management tailored to each patient’s needs. BrainCheck’s cognitive monitoring solution also allows individuals to track their brain health from home and easily share their results with loved ones.
Founded: 2009
Focus: Women’s Reproductive Health
What they do: Founded by Dr. Piraye Yurttas Beim, Celmatix is a research-stage precision health company that aims to transform women’s health. The company’s Reproductive Atlas Platform utilizes a structured dataset in an effort to develop treatments for conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Celmatix partners with a variety of organizations including Evotec, Bayer and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
What they do: Nirsum Labs aims to combat the U.S. opioid crisis through the development of medications for opioid use disorder (OUD). The company has engineered a series of novel small molecule candidates with potential utility in OUD and other indications. Nirsum Labs’ mission is to advance the development of effective OUD treatments.
Founded: 2014
Focus: Cancer Research Trials
What they do: Massive Bio has created a platform capable of connecting cancer patients to bio-pharmaceutical trials. The company’s AI-driven platform matches patients with the right clinical research based on their cancer type and the current stage of the disease, thus helping patients discover novel treatments in real-time. Massive Bio seeks to bridge the gap between cancer patients and healthcare providers.
Founded: 2016
Focus: Personalized Wellness Solutions
What they do: LifeNome has developed an AI-driven B2B platform that allows organizations to offer their customers personalized science-based products and services. The company’s products are designed for a wide range of purposes including nutrition and diet monitoring, sleep and stress management, and genetic predisposition tracking. LifeNome partners with a variety of global organizations such as IBM, Unilever and the World Economic Forum.
