The top 10 pharmaceutical companies in Cambridge to follow
The top 10 pharmaceutical companies in Cambridge to follow
Cambridge, UK, is one of the global giants when it comes to the pharmaceutical industry. Located 60 miles north of London, it is home to Europe’s largest biotechnology cluster, consisting of more than 30 science and technology parks. In Cambridge Science Park alone, there are 170 companies, and it is the largest and longest serving centre for commercial research and development in Europe, including 34 life sciences companies. The city has produced a lot of impressive growth in the pharmaceutical sector with an equally impressive pipeline which has brought in substantial investment. Life science companies in Cambridge play a crucial role in the UK economy, with the pharmaceutical sector bringing in £13 billion of revenue in 2023.
The top ten pharma companies in Cambridge to watch in 2025 are listed below. This list, based on our industry expertise, includes a mix of established leaders by market share and revenue, as well as emerging players making their mark.
Top 10 pharmaceutical companies in Cambridge
10. Mogrify
Revenue: US$5.2M per year
Mogrify is a Cambridge-based regenerative medicine company, concerned with the areas of otology, diabetes, ophthalmology, and other diseases. Founded in 2019, the company has positioned itself in the pharmaceutical landscape as disruptors in biotech. With a workforce of over 60 employees, it has harnessed in vivo reprogramming therapies as a new approach. This method involves using therapies to encourage a tissue’s ability to self-repair by either encouraging remaining healthy cells to multiply or by changing nearby cells into other cell types needed for repair.
It has five different in vivo reprogramming therapies in the pipeline covering various conditions that are typically hard to treat, showing their ambition to help transform patient lives. In 2022, Mogrify partnered with the Japanese regenerative medicine company Astellas Pharma inc. to collaborate on research into in vivo regenerative medicine approaches to hearing loss that is primarily caused by issues in the inner ear.
9. Evonetix
Revenue: US$5.4M per year
Founded in 2015, Evonetix is a Cambridge-based company and a pioneer in gene reproduction, taking the industry by storm with their innovative technology. The company is made up of a workforce of over 100 employees working across chemistry, biology, physics, software, cloud development, mechanical engineering, production, amongst other areas.
It is designing technology that will allow highly accurate DNA creation on a small chip that can produce different types of DNA sequences simultaneously. This fast, scalable, high-fidelity approach to DNA synthesis has not been previously seen in the industry and has brought a total of $54 million in series B funding.
Evonetix hopes that this technology will help scientists tackle challenges in healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and sustainability. The company hopes its technology will help relieve pressures of the DNA availability bottleneck that is delaying the life sciences industry.
8. Healx Ltd
Revenue: US$12.7M per year
Healx Ltd was founded in 2014 and is a Cambridge-based biotechnology research company made up of around 100 employees that works to deliver AI-powered, patient-inspired treatments for rare diseases. Its mission is to develop advanced drug discovery through analysing extensive medical data to repurpose pre-existing drugs to treat rare diseases. With its success, Healx has some projects in the pipeline that are focused on making an impact on rare oncology, kidney diseases and neurology conditions and the company is aiming to progress 100 treatments for rare diseases to clinical trials by 2025.
Additionally, in 2022, Healx partnered with Ovid Therapeutics to resume research into fragile x syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes a range of multiple developmental issues including learning disabilities, cognitive impairment, and physical developments. Because of the AI used, the company was able to take the drug for fragile X syndrome to clinical trials in less than two years, compared to the average five to seven year process.
7. Artios Pharma
Founded in 2016 and based in Cambridge, Artios Pharma are on a mission to develop DNA damage response (DDR) therapeutic strategies and repair pathways to kill cancer and malignant diseases. The 100-strong company has built up a solid pipeline to use these strategies to focus on areas concerning untreatable solid abnormal masses. Because of its industry-leading expertise in the oncology sector, Artios Pharma has managed to collaborate with some of the biggest names in the pharma industry, most notably Merk KGaA and Novartis.
Additionally, it is also working alongside Cancer Research UK, the Institute of Cancer Research, The Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Crick Institute to develop cutting edge proven strategies to DDR drug discovery. Looking to the future, the biotech company has two candidate drugs in clinical trials in partnership with Merck and Novartis to treat tumours that are likely to spread between different areas of the body.
6. Bicycle Therapeutics
Revenue: US$27M
Founded in 2009 by Nobel prize winner and Cambridge professor Sir Greg Winter, Bicycle Therapeutics are leaders in harnessing bicyclic peptides to treat cancer and other diseases. Bicycle Therapeutics are a transatlantic company headquartered in the life science cluster in Cambridge, UK, with around 250 employees, along with offices in the biotech hub of Boston, USA, utilising both biotech centres to develop this leading treatment.
The bicyclic peptides use a double-loop structure of amino acids to stick to specific targets and maintain their stability. They work similarly to antibodies by binding to unwanted substances and eliminating them. Bicycle Therapeutics and Novartis entered a collaboration in March 2023 to use Bicycle Therapeutics’ special peptide technology to develop precise cancer treatments that deliver radiation directly to cancer cells.
The pharmaceutical company currently has several molecules in clinical trials, whilst many other discovery-stage projects are also being progressed.
5. Congenica
Revenue: US$35M
Congenica is a revolutionary biotechnological research company headquartered in Cambridge, consisting of around 100 personnel. Founded in 2014, it utilises innovative software and solutions to drive custom medicine at scale. Formed as a spinoff company from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Congenica is the UK’s fastest growing genetics company and is partnered with many UK hospitals for genomic diagnostics. An area of medicine that focuses on the changes in genes that can cause potential threats to someone’s health. It also has international partnerships, such as with the company UCB in Belgium to work on drug discovery programmes.
Congenica has an innovative portfolio with therapies addressing inherited and rare diseases, cancer genetics and infection monitoring. The company has helped to establish the first national health service to offer whole genome sequencing in England. This means that rare diseases can be diagnosed quickly and safely, treatments can be personalised and cancer care can be improved on a national scale.
4. bit.bio
Revenue: US$38.6M
bit.bio is an award-winning synthetic biology company based in Cambridge determined to develop cell therapies for new cures for difficult to treat diseases. Founded in 2016 with just over 150 employees, it sits within the field of science concerned with redesigning organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have different abilities. One of bit.bio’s specialities is screening large datasets and locating “cocktails” of proteins that can be used alongside stem cells to turn them into a desired cell type.
bit.bio and Charles River Laboratories have been partners since 2019 to use bit.bio’s cell reprogramming technology to produce high-quality human cells, enhancing drug discovery and development by improving the success rate of creating effective therapies.
The company has a comprehensive pipeline in the developmental stages to help cure untreatable diseases. Areas which bit.bio are hoping to explore in the future include metabolism and endocrinology, immunology and neurology cell disciplines.
3. AstraZeneca
Revenue: US$45.811M
One of the biggest names in the biopharmaceutical sector due to the success of its COVID-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca’s main global strategic research and development centre is based in Cambridge, UK. Founded in 1999, the British-Swedish merger operates from their global headquarters, in Cambridge. They have a research and development presence in over 60 countries, focusing on disciplines ranging from oncology to immune therapies.
Presently, AstraZeneca collaborates with academic institutions, governments, biotech firms, and patient organisations to drive scientific innovation and speed up the creation of new medicines. AstraZeneca is set to invest £200 million to expand its presence at Europe’s largest life sciences cluster in Cambridge. The new facility will accommodate around 1,000 employees and will be located next to its £1.1 billion global R&D Discovery Centre (DISC), which already hosts 2,300 researchers and scientists.
With 189 ongoing projects, the pharmaceutical giant has a robust pipeline, concerned with major and rare diseases, to challenge its competitors. Additionally, AstraZeneca also has lots of projects that have been submitted for approval as well as many in the third stage of clinical trials.
2. Amgen
Revenue: US$28B
Founded in 1980, Amgen operates an R&D centre in Cambridge. This centre supports clinical development, regulatory affairs, and various specialist R&D functions at local, European, and global levels, including biostatistical sciences, safety, medical, quality and compliance. With a workforce of over 500 employees across the UK and Ireland, spanning both commercial and research & development sectors, Amgen set up its first UK office 25 years ago. In the UK, the pharmaceutical giant works closely with the country’s National Health Service, as we as other organisations to deliver treatments to patients.
The company is dedicated to unlocking the potential of biology to aid patients with serious illnesses by discovering, developing, and delivering innovative human therapeutics, particularly in areas with significant unmet medical needs. Serving millions of patients worldwide, Amgen leverages the best of biology and technology to tackle the world’s most challenging diseases, enhancing people's lives by making them easier, fuller and longer.
1. GSK (R&D centre)
Revenue: US$30.3B
Housing its biomedical research centre in Cambridge, GSK is a biotech and pharmaceuticals multinational company founded in December 2000 and is known for making inhaled medicines for asthma and COPD, antibiotics and medicines for skin diseases. Currently, it is investing £1bn in research and development in the UK annually with a focus on the immune system, genetics and advanced technologies. The company has R&D sites in multiple countries, such as the UK, US, Italy, Spain and Belgium, with a global reach of up to 12 other countries from where they operate from.
GSK is actively collaborating with CureVac on mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, the University of Oxford on neurodegenerative disease research, King’s College London on cancer treatments, 23andMe on genetics and genomics, and Flagship Pioneering on discovering new medicines and vaccines.
Now, it is focusing on developing vaccine technology to target infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory and immunology and oncology. Plus, the company has lots of drug therapies that are in the registration phase and many more that are in the different stages of clinical trials.
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