Demographics and Therapeutic Focus

While most of the respondents hailed from biotech and pharmaceutical companies, a considerable number were from academic institutions and ‘Other’, most of which stated that they were from instrument manufacturers and suppliers.

The largest proportion of respondents were of VPs, heads of department and directors within their organizations, followed closely by scientists and researchers. Respondents who selected ‘Other’ stated that they work in marketing, regulatory and legal positions.

Most of the respondents worked in international organizations. Just under half of all respondents’ companies operated in North America and, closely behind, there was a fairly even split between companies operating in Europe and Asia.

Over two thirds of organizations operating in both Europe and Asia also had branches in North America, and all of the companies in Africa and Oceania had multiregional operations.

Two thirds of respondents worked in companies which were working on oligonucleotide therapeutics, over a half were from companies working on peptide therapeutics, and a third on mRNA therapeutics.

Surprisingly, only 17% of respondents’ companies were working on macromolecular delivery, which is now a much lower proportion than 43% in our 2019 survey.

siRNA is still the most popular choice of oligonucleotide, with miRNA and ASO gapmers next in line. ASO exon skipping and aptamers are now less popular than they were in 2019 with 36% and 22% respectively, while ASO gapmers are 10% higher in popularity.