A New Turning Point in Biotech Innovation: 2026 Market Trends in AI-based Drug Development and Personalized Medicine
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Acceleration of AI-driven Biotech Innovation
The biotech industry is experiencing an unprecedented period of innovation with the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. As of January 2026, the global AI-based drug development market has reached $18 billion, marking a 42% growth compared to the same period last year. This indicates a technological breakthrough that can reduce the traditional drug development timeline from 10-15 years to 5-7 years. The use of AI is rapidly increasing in key areas such as protein structure prediction, molecular simulation, and clinical trial optimization.
Samsung Biologics, located in Incheon, South Korea, is at the forefront of these changes, having established an AI-based biopharmaceutical production optimization system. By the fourth quarter of 2025, the company recorded sales of 2.34 trillion won, a 28% increase from the same period the previous year, with approximately 15% attributed to efficiency improvements through AI-based process optimization. Samsung Biologics’ AI system improved production yield by an average of 12% and reduced errors in quality control processes by 35%.
In the global market, Thermo Fisher Scientific, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is gaining attention with its AI-based laboratory automation solutions. The company’s annual revenue for 2025 was $44.2 billion, an 8% increase from the previous year, with the AI and digital solutions segment accounting for $6.2 billion. Thermo Fisher’s AI platform automates the entire process from experimental design to data analysis, reportedly enhancing research efficiency by an average of 40%.
Explosive Growth in the Personalized Medicine Market
The personalized medicine market has entered a new growth trajectory in 2026. The global personalized medicine market size has reached $785 billion, with an annual growth rate of 13.2%. This growth is driven by the sharp decline in genome analysis costs and advancements in AI-based data analysis technologies. The cost of whole-genome sequencing has now dropped to around $600, a 40% decrease compared to $1,000 in 2020.
Celltrion, located in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, South Korea, is gaining attention by adopting a personalized approach in the biosimilar field. The company recorded sales of 2.86 trillion won in 2025, an 18% increase from the previous year. Celltrion’s personalized biosimilar development program aims to provide individualized therapies considering patients’ genetic characteristics, with three pipelines currently in Phase 2 clinical trials. Notably, they have developed an AI model to predict patient-specific responses in the rheumatoid arthritis treatment field, improving treatment success rates from 70% to 85%.
Illumina, based in San Diego, California, is playing a key role in expanding the personalized medicine market as a leader in genome sequencing technology. The company’s 2025 revenue was $4.1 billion, a 12% increase from the previous year, with the release of the new NovaSeq X series enhancing sequencing throughput by 2.5 times. Illumina’s technology is currently used in generating over 90% of the world’s genomic data, showing particularly high performance in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, has established a unique position in the field of personalized cancer treatment. The company’s pharmaceutical division revenue for 2025 was 49 billion Swiss francs (approximately $54 billion), a 6% increase from the previous year, with personalized therapies accounting for 45% of this. Roche’s subsidiary, Foundation Medicine, provides services offering optimal treatments for patients through comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) tests, currently utilized in over 300 medical institutions worldwide.
Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, is showing innovative achievements in the CAR-T cell therapy field. The company’s pharmaceutical division revenue for 2025 was $57 billion, a 5.8% increase from the previous year, with an annual investment of $3.2 billion in developing personalized immunotherapies. J&J’s CAR-T therapy, Carvykti, achieved an 85% complete remission rate in multiple myeloma patients, showing significantly superior effects compared to existing treatments.
In the mRNA technology field, Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is focusing on developing personalized cancer vaccines following the success of its COVID-19 vaccine. The company recorded $6 billion in revenue in 2025, with its personalized cancer vaccine mRNA-4157 reducing the risk of recurrence by 44% in melanoma patients during Phase 3 clinical trials. Moderna currently has 15 personalized therapy pipelines, with 7 in clinical trial stages.
The biotech venture investment market is also showing active movements. The global biotech venture investment size for 2025 was $28.5 billion, a 23% increase from the previous year, with AI-based drug development and personalized therapy development fields accounting for 62% of total investments. Notably, biotech investments in Asia surged, with $1.5 billion in South Korea, $4.2 billion in China, and $1.8 billion in Japan.
Changes in the regulatory environment are also noteworthy. The U.S. FDA announced new guidelines for AI-based medical devices and diagnostics in December 2025, while South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety introduced an expedited review system for personalized therapies starting January 2026. These regulatory relaxations are expected to shorten the product launch period for biotech companies by an average of 8-12 months.
Market experts predict that 2026 will be a turning point for the biotech industry. The technological innovations driven by the convergence of AI and genomics, increased demand for personalized therapies, and improvements in the regulatory environment are expected to collectively drive growth across the industry. Particularly with the rapid growth of the Asian market, the global biotech ecosystem is anticipated to become more multipolar. The pace of innovation in this field is expected to accelerate over the next 3-5 years, presenting new opportunities and challenges for investors and companies alike.
