Three Trends in Biotechnology That Are Shaping the Future of Medicine in 2025

Breakthroughs in biotechnology are increasingly shaping the world around us. Whether through an increasingly AI-powered revolution in how we treat and diagnose patients or through novel drugs that redefine how we see health and fitness, new medical technologies have a powerful impact on our lives. In this blog, we look forward to the biotechnology trends that will define medicine in 2025 and beyond.

#1 The Continued Rise of AI Trends in Biotechnology

AI’s Expanding Role in Medicine

The revolutionary impact of technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) has been felt across the world. Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have exploded into the public consciousness and there are few industries that haven’t been transformed to some extent by readily available AI-powered tools. In medicine, machine learning and other AI technologies have been in use for many years. AlphaFold, which uses deep learning techniques to predict protein folding, has been successfully unravelling biochemical mysteries since 2018 and its creators received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2024.  

However, investment in biotech companies leveraging AI has skyrocketed, with around $5.6 billion invested in 2024, nearly three times that seen the previous year. These technologies aim to define the future of biotechnology across the spectrum, from drug development to delivery in the clinic.

AI-Powered Drug Discovery and Development

Companies like Insilico Medicine are using a host of machine learning technologies to predict novel targets in a range of diseases and design therapeutics aimed at these targets. An anti-fibrotic drug, designed by their AI-powered system, against a novel target, also identified by their AI platform, entered phase I clinical trials last year following a drug development process they say took only 30 months. In cancer research, Turbine has developed its proprietary Simulated Cell technology, which they claim generates a customisable tumour cell in silico on which millions of AI-guided experiments can be performed. Last year, the company announced a collaboration with AstraZeneca to explore mechanisms of therapeutic resistance in blood cancer.

AI in Diagnosis and Prognostics

In prognostics, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) has been developing the Biomedical Data Translator (simply Translator for short) which uses AI as a diagnostic tool, screening patient symptoms against big data sets on a scale that would be impossible for clinicians at the bedside. In January of this year, the NHS launched an AI-powered tool that analyses results from electrocardiograms (ECGs) to predict the risk of type 2 diabetes. Approximately 300 FDA submissions have included reference to AI since 2016, and the proportion of novel interventions based around such technologies will only increase in 2025 and beyond as investment, and acceptance by the public, continues to grow.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations of AI in Healthcare

Among recent innovations and trends in biotechnology, the use of AI has received the most public attention and scrutiny. The rise of AI has prompted widespread concerns among healthcare professionals and regulators who argue that new AI-powered technologies are opaque and lack accountability. The mechanisms with which AI tools based on machine learning and neural networks operate are not always clear, even to their creators, generating apprehension about their use in critical areas like diagnosis and healthcare management. As the use of AI surges across multiple industries, regulators are struggling to keep up with progress leaving the future biotechnology industry outlook unclear.

Ozempic and GLP-1 Drugs Hit the Mainstream

The Rise of GLP-1 Drugs

Ozempic was big news in 2024. GLP-1 drugs, including Ozempic (a brand name for Semaglutide), were originally developed to tackle diabetes by controlling insulin secretion but quickly came to be known for a powerful side-effect: appetite suppression. Uptake among celebrities and influencers has been rapid and Ozempic has quickly entered the lexicon as a byword for hassle-free weight loss. The demand for GLP-1 drugs rose so quickly that manufacturers struggled to meet demand.

A New Approach to Obesity and Chronic Disease

While Ozempic is currently only approved for type 2 diabetes in Europe and the UK, with additional approval for those at risk of heart failure in the US, it is the drug's off-label effects that could be transformative. With obesity recognised as an epidemic across much of the Western world, GLP-1 drugs are increasingly being seen as a solution to a host of related conditions. Cardiovascular disease remains the world’s biggest killer and is directly associated with obesity, meaning weight loss drugs have a potential global market as a preventative therapy if approval and uptake are widespread and prices continue to fall. 

Many cancers are recognised to be related to obesity and weight-loss drugs may play a role in preventative approaches to tackling cancer. Similarly, many illnesses prevalent in an increasingly ageing society, like musculoskeletal conditions and stroke, could be counteracted by population-wide drops in obesity.

Side Effects and Long-Term Considerations

There are immediate side effects of GLP-1 drugs that should be taken into account by users including gastrointestinal issues like nausea and vomiting, as well as more serious issues like the development of pancreatitis. However, concerns have been raised about the impact of weight loss drugs on health and wellness more broadly. Distinctions have been made between ‘healthy’ weight loss based on exercise and a balanced diet, and rapid weight loss as a result of extreme dieting. Many GLP-1 users experience rapid weight gain after they stop taking the drugs, leading to concerns of overreliance on pharmacological substitutes for a healthy lifestyle. The potential for rapid weight loss also plays into growing societal fears regarding body image and eating disorders in the age of selfies and social media.

#3 The Coming of Age of Personalized Medicine

Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Treatments

Many challenges faced in the clinic can be ascribed to a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to medicine. The huge variety of patient responses to the same therapy reduces our power to predict the efficacy of interventions and diminishes confidence in the capacity of drugs to treat illness. This is likely to be felt most acutely in cancer care, where disease development and genetic background are unique to each patient and where the off-target effects of chemotherapies often pose a deadly threat to the user. Some progress has already reached the clinic, where screening for specific hormone receptors in breast cancer has been the standard of care for decades.

Advances in Genomics and Rapid DNA Sequencing

It took thousands of researchers from 20 institutes across the world 13 years to complete the first Human Genome Project. Now, as the cost of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies has plummeted and their availability has grown rapidly, it is possible to sequence a whole genome in a matter of hours. This has enabled rapid screening for a range of inherited genetic diseases and cancer-associated genes 

NGS technologies have also enabled the sequencing of genomic DNA from tumour samples, blood tests and liquid biopsies leading to treatment regimes targeted depending on a patient’s specific mutational background. For example in colorectal cancer, mutations in KRAS (Kirsten Rat Sarcoma virus) and microsatellite instability (MSI) guide the choice of chemotherapy.

Personalized Health and Wellness

There is potential for a personalised approach to health and wellness more broadly. An understanding of our own physical fitness once reserved for professional athletes is increasingly available to the general public through health trackers, fitness apps and advanced diagnostics tools in the clinic. Metabolomics, which does for the body’s chemistry what genomics has done for our genes, can generate a snapshot of an individual’s vital functions to inform health interventions and lifestyle changes.

Challenges and Risks of a Personalised Approach

A personalised approach to medicine requires gathering vast amounts of data on individuals across populations, prompting ethical concerns about the availability of patient’s data and the potential for data breaches. Opaque AI processes for screening data could further concerns about whose data is being used, and for what.

Conclusion

The future of biotechnology will be guided by an increasingly personalised and technology-driven approach. As healthcare costs continue to rise and populations get older, the trends in biotechnology discussed here can shape the biotech industry outlook for years to come. AI enables an ever more personalised approach to healthcare through the analysis of vast amounts of data and the rapid identification of specific druggable targets. The rise of GLP-1 drugs is indicative of an increasingly personal and proactive approach to health and wellness, mostly operating away from the clinic and driven by lifestyle brands and influencers. The precise regulatory framework in which these biotech trends will operate remains unclear but their role in the future of healthcare is certain.

If you need support bringing your novel biotech breakthrough to market, Co-Labbs suite of writing services can assist. Learn how Co-Labb can tell the story of your innovation by talking to our team of PhD-level writers.