The life science industry is highly complex, and categorizing its players is a challenging task. When we created Biotechgate, a global life science database, we needed to formulate a system that would reflect the state of the industry as accurately as possible while remaining intuitive to users.
There are eleven sectors in the Biotechgate database, and each company is assigned to one sector. We assign one sector to each company to avoid an inaccurate portrayal of the industry, as the sum of the companies by sector would not equal the total number of companies in the database. With that system, compiling objective reports and analyses would be very difficult. We establish the most relevant sector for complex companies and consider how the company identifies itself.
Likewise, we strictly list each product, technology, and financing round only once. Those records are assigned only to the profile of the company headquarters—even if a product or technology is being developed by an international subsidiary.
In addition, we do not classify a subsidiary as a biotech, pharma, or MedTech company if this entity is primarily involved in marketing and distribution rather than research, development, or manufacturing. Therefore, our statistics sometimes differ from the over-optimistic reports compiled by other sources. As accuracy is our priority, we refuse to compromise our categorization system.
The sectors of the Biotechgate database are grouped into two categories—life science companies (“core companies”) and companies that provide services to the life science industry (“non-core companies”). Detailed descriptions of all sectors and subsectors in the Biotechgate database can be found here.
The first category of core companies comprises six sectors:
- Biotechnology—Therapeutics and Diagnostics
- Biotechnology—R&D Services
- Biotechnology—Other
- Pharma
- Medical Technology
- Digital Health (previously called by us HealthTech and also known as eHealth) – this sector does not always fit into the common understanding of life science; however, these companies develop products and services that are directed to patients and healthcare providers, therefore, we categorize them as core companies)
At Biotechgate, we strictly distinguish biotechnology companies from pharmaceutical companies. We classify pharmaceutical companies as large, international corporations with extensive pipelines that deal both in branded and generic compounds and that in-license novel compounds from smaller companies. These smaller companies, which often develop only one or a few products at a time, we categorize as biotechnology companies.
The second category of non-core companies comprises five sectors:
- Investors
- Professional Services and Consulting
- Public Companies, Non-Profit Organizations, and Medical Facilities
- Suppliers and Engineering Companies
- Media
Each main sector has a set of subsectors, and companies may belong to more than one subsector. We aim to describe each company as fully as possible.
Other elements of our company categorization include:
- Main Therapeutic Area (Based on ICD-10 Codes)
- Business Model
- Customer Segment
- Distribution (Direct or Indirect)
- Source of Foundation (Independent Foundation, Spin-off, Merger, etc.)
The feedback that has been provided by Biotechgate users suggests that our categorization system works well, and that our database allows precise and accurate searches.
We are happy to offer you a free trial of Biotechgate if you wish to try our system for yourself.