43. ElevateBio
In the face of significant headwinds for the biotech sector over the past year, ElevateBio has continued to advance its research related to the breakthrough CRISPR gene editing technology, and treatments ranging from cancer, to multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and Huntington's Disease.
In March, the company partnered with Amazon Web Services to combine its advanced computing power with ElevateBio's patented gene editing platform. The collaboration will enable ElevateBio to analyze data to design new CRISPR systems more efficiently using generative AI. That efficiency could enable genetic treatments for many more diseases caused by complex genetic mutations, as the FDA ramps up its approvals pace for gene therapies to 10-20 a year.
ElevateBio develops its own therapeutics, but is also helping other companies scale their therapeutics production, by offering manufacturing services to companies such as Moderna and Novo Nordisk, with which it has expanded a therapeutic pipeline to 10-plus internal & partnered gene editing programs. ElevateBio's partnerships with Novo Nordisk and Moderna include revenue from products developed through its Life Edit gene editing platform.
ElevateBio has a manufacturing plant at its Waltham Mass., headquarters. In 2027, the company will start operating a new plant in Pittsburgh, Pa., built with the help of a record $100 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Call them one-stop shops for some of the most advanced therapeutics in the world.
The company, which stayed in stealth mode for two years after its founding in 2017 by industry veteran David Hallal, competes in a fast-growing field, from big pharmas to companies such as CRISPR Therapeutics and Bluebird Bio. Coming in addition to other advances, such as mRNA vaccines, the CRISPR technology makes it promising time to be a biotech company. But Bluebird's recent fall from a multi-billion dollar public valuation to private equity sale for a reported $29 million demonstrates that along with the promise, there will always be a high-risk nature to these efforts.
ElevateBio says it achieved $120 million in 2024 annual revenue, with 200%-plus growth over two years, and is projecting growth of 30%-plus year-over-year in 2025. But it also has experienced growing pains amid the biotech sector pressures, with a recent round of layoffs affecting 17% of its workforce.
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