Skip to main content
The ARK Venture Fund Is Proud To Be A Part Of OpenAI’s Latest Funding Round!
ARKVX Participated In OpenAI's Latest Round
Learn More

Looking For Our European Funds?

Click Here
About How To Invest
ARK Invest logo
You Are Entering ark-funds.com

Please read this page before proceeding, as it explains certain restrictions imposed by law on the distribution of this information and the countries in which the funds are authorized for sale. By proceeding, you are confirming you understand that ARK Investment Management LLC or its affiliates (collectively, “ARK”), makes no representation that the content of the website is appropriate for use in all locations, or that the transactions, securities, products, instruments or services discussed at this website are available or appropriate for sale or use in all jurisdictions or countries, or by all investors or counterparties.


This section of the website is operated by ARK, and is only directed at U.S. investors or those otherwise authorized to conduct investment business in the U.S. Persons resident in territories other than the United States should not access this website.


It is your responsibility to be aware of and to observe all applicable laws and regulations of any relevant jurisdiction. Certain of the funds and advisory products and services referenced on this website may be managed or offered/provided by affiliates of ARK. Additionally, certain of the funds described in the following pages may be marketed in certain jurisdictions only. Any entity forwarding the material or information contained on this website, which is produced by ARK in the United States, to other parties takes full responsibility for ensuring compliance with applicable securities laws in connection with its distribution.


This website only includes information on those funds that are registered for sale in the United States.


By accessing this website, you are confirming that you agree to the Terms and Conditions of this website and that you are resident in the United States or those otherwise authorized to conduct investment business in the U.S.


The contents of this website have been prepared for informational purposes only without regard to the investment objectives, financial situation, or means of any particular person or entity, and ARK is not soliciting any action based upon them. No information included on this website is to be construed as investment advice or as a recommendation or a representation about the suitability or appropriateness of any fund; or an offer to buy or sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, any security, financial product, or instrument; or to participate in any particular trading strategy. ARK recommends that you seek independent financial and tax advice before making any investment decisions. Investment in any of the funds described in this website should only be made on the basis of the terms and conditions of the most recent applicable offering documents (including any relevant supplements).


All material has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed. Some of the content on this website may contain certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. From time to time, ARK may also make additional features available to users on this website on such terms and conditions as may be set forth in a modification to this Agreement or otherwise on the ARK website.


The ARK ETF Trust Thematic Actively Managed ETF’s are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC (“Foreside“), which is not affiliated with ARK Investment Management LLC. Check the background of Foreside on FINRA’s BrokerCheck.


You should carefully consider the investment objective, risks, charges and expenses of a Fund before investing. A Fund’s prospectus and summary prospectus contain this and other important information about a Fund, which can be obtained by clicking the corresponding link or dialing the indicated phone number herein. Please read the appropriate prospectus carefully before investing.


GENERAL RISK FACTORS


You should be aware that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Please note that the price of units or shares and the income from them can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested. Income receivable may vary from the amount of income projected at the time of making the investment.


Exchange rate fluctuations may affect the value of an investment and any income derived from it.


If you exercise any right to redeem, you may not get back the amount initially invested if the unit or share price has fallen since you invested. Deductions for charges and expenses, particularly the initial charge (if any), are not made uniformly throughout the life of the investment, so if you redeem out of the investment during the early years, you may not get back the amount invested.


There can be no guarantee that the tax position or proposed tax position prevailing at the time of an investment will not change. Dividends and capital gains on securities issued in the relevant funds may be subject to withholding taxes imposed by the countries in which each particular fund invests.


The offering documents for the investment funds contain important information summarizing the relevant risk factors pertaining to the investment or relevant funds. Please note, however, that no summary of risk factors is exhaustive, and there may be other risks that could affect your investment. For your own benefit and protection you should read the most recent offering documents (including any relevant supplements) carefully before investing. If you do not understand any point please ask for further information.


The information provided on this website is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation, or which would subject any of the funds described herein, ARK (including its affiliates) or any of their products or services to any registration, licensing or other authorization requirement within such jurisdiction or country. Nothing on this website shall be considered a solicitation to buy or sell a security, product or service (including advisory service) to any person.


HYPERLINKS


ARK does not recommend or endorse and accepts no responsibility for the content of any website not operated by ARK which you may visit by following a link from this website. You acknowledge and agree that neither ARK nor any of its affiliates is responsible for the availability of such third-party websites or resources, does not endorse, approve, investigate or verify, and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from such websites or resources. You further agree that neither ARK nor any of its affiliates shall be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, products or services available on such external websites or resources. These links are provided as a convenience and solely for informational purposes. ARK is not making any recommendation to invest in, purchase, or sell any securities or other products or services offered on the linked websites, nor has ARK sought to verify or confirm the information contained in the linked websites. Accordingly, ARK disclaims any responsibility for the linked websites.


No other website, without the prior written permission of ARK, is authorized to link to any part of this website.


COOKIES


ARK uses cookies for collecting user information from certain pages of this website. A cookie is a file that is stored on the hard disk of a computer by the web browser on a computer. It contains information sent by the website that a user has visited. A cookie identifies users and can store information about them and their use of a website. ARK uses cookies to keep track of user activity, which allows ARK to identify which areas of the website are more interesting to the users so that improvements can be made to this website.


ARK expressly reserves the right to monitor any use of this website.


I confirm that I have read and accept the Terms and Conditions of using this website and that I am based in the United States or those otherwise authorized to conduct investment business in the United States.

Ark Logo

Select Your Region

CONTINUE TO U.S. SITE VISIT EUROPEAN SITE
Mentioned Companies: TWST, TEM, PSNL, GH, NTRA, ABSI, RXRX, CRSP

The Transformative Potential of Biotechnology and AI in Healthcare

Oct 21, 2024
16 min read

INTRODUCTION: A NEW ERA IN MEDICINE

Advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI) are expanding scientists’ ability to discover new therapeutic targets and innovate new treatment modalities for more precise and effective interventions with fewer side effects. In short, a revolution within the field of medicine is taking shape before our eyes, made visible in three trends:

Biologics Surge: Reflecting the rapid adoption of biotechnology for new treatments, the number of biologic drugs approved by the FDA has nearly tripled since 2010.

Market Growth: Some estimates see advances in monoclonal antibodies and gene therapies propelling the global biologics market to a value of $399 billion by 2025. 

Precision Medicine: New biological modalities like CRISPR—methods that use natural body processes to help diagnose or treat illness—can reduce off-target effects by 60%, a vast improvement over traditional small-molecule drugs.


Three concurrent scientific dynamics undergird those trends: 

  • The shift from chronic treatments to curative therapies;
  • The integration of artificial intelligence into drug discovery;
  • Revolutionary advancements in multiomics for early disease detection and personalized medicine.

The next sections discuss each of those dynamics in turn.

FROM CHRONIC TREATMENTS TO CURATIVE THERAPIES

Historically, the pharmaceutical industry has been structured around the chronic management of diseases. Drugs were developed, brought to market, and sold to growing patient populations, generics eventually entering the market and driving prices down. Now, a healthcare paradigm shift is taking shape in which a single treatment might cure a disease and eliminate the need for ongoing care. Curative therapies like CRISPR Therapeutics’ (CRSP) Casgevy, currently approved in the UK, Europe, and the United States, are able to treat blood disorders such as sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia with a single treatment, potentially curing the disease. 

The UK and US have underwritten Casgevy at $2.2 million per patient, for example, which, though seemingly exorbitant, actually represents a significant cost-saving for healthcare systems by avoiding lifelong maintenance treatments and their associated medical expenses. In diseases like sickle cell anemia, where only 10% of lifetime expenses are medication-related and the remaining 90% burden the healthcare system, a curative therapy shifts the entire cost dynamic. Insurers now pay upfront for the cure; no competitive pricing pressure ensues, because once a patient is cured, they are no longer part of the patient population.

This new model differs profoundly from traditional drug commercialization by absorbing the patient population before patent and exclusivity cliffs, making first-in-class drugs increasingly valuable. As CRISPR and other gene-editing technologies advance, we expect to see similar breakthroughs in diseases with larger patient populations, such as cardiovascular conditions and diabetes. Our research suggests that Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) is closest to reaching the first-ever in-vivo gene-editing approval1 around its therapy for Hereditary angioedema,2 likely in 2026. Its impact on the quality of life can be profound!3



Key Points

  • Cost of Chronic Care: Chronic disease management costs account for 90% of the $3.8 trillion spent on healthcare in the United States annually.
  • Cure Cost Efficiency: CRISPR-based cures, despite high upfront costs, can reduce by 75% total lifetime treatment costs for certain diseases.
  • Market Impact: By 2030, ARK’s research suggests that advancements in CRISPR and other gene-editing technologies could spur the gene therapy market to surpass $13 billion by 2030.



THE INTEGRATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INTO DRUG DISCOVERY

The integration of AI into drug discovery is reshaping the pharmaceutical landscape. AI is transforming drug discovery from a linear, labor-intensive process to a highly efficient, data-driven endeavor. Companies like Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX) and Absci (ABSI) are at the forefront of this transformation, both utilizing AI to automate and accelerate the identification and development of new drugs. Interestingly, “Big Pharma” companies are not the innovators in this field; they are following innovation through partnerships. Players like Recursion should be poised to hold the dominant positions in the space.

Recursion has reduced the cost and time of drug development by leveraging AI to run millions of experiments simultaneously, an approach that speeds up the discovery process and reduces the risk of failure by allowing researchers to focus on the most promising candidates early on. Recursion’s recent merger with Exscientia, a leader in AI-driven chemistry, further enhances its ability to bring first-in-class and best-in-class drugs to market more quickly and less expensively.

Another great example of AI-drug discovery integration, Absci’s "zero-shot"4 approach to antibody development exemplifies the power of AI in drug discovery. By predicting the best design for a new antibody without the need for extensive trial and error, Absci can shorten the drug development timeline and reduce costs significantly, improving patient outcomes by bringing effective treatments to market more quickly while benefiting investors through faster returns on investment. As it has improved its efficiencies, Absci also has achieved increased efficacy relative to incumbents. In their seminal paper on "zero-shot," Absci identified five antibody candidates that demonstrated superior performance compared to the current market leader in antibody-based drugs targeting human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2) in breast cancer.



Key Points

  • Cost Reduction: AI-driven drug discovery platforms like Recursion could reduce the cost of drug development from $2.6 billion to as low as $1 billion, a game-changing 60%.
  • Time Efficiency: AI has the potential to cut drug discovery timelines by 50%, bringing new therapies to market in 5-7 years instead of the traditional 10-15 years.
  • Investment Surge: ARK’s research suggests that rapid adoption could spur the AI-enabled drug discovery market to grow from $600 million in 2021 to $3.9 billion by 2027.



MULTIOMICS AND THE FUTURE OF CANCER DETECTION AND TREATMENT

Multiomics integrates diverse biological data sources from: 

  • Genomics, the study genes
  • Proteomics, the study of proteins
  • Metabolomics, the study of small molecules called metabolites

Integrating data from such diverse sources transforms the landscape of cancer detection and treatment while advancing our understanding of various other diseases, revolutionizing the detection and treatment of cancer and beyond.

Liquid biopsies that sample blood or bodily fluid to check for signs of illness, without the need for invasive procedures or surgery, are supplementing traditional cancer monitoring methods that rely on imaging. The newer methods enable earlier and more accurate detection of minimal residual disease (MRD), those illnesses in the body that linger after treatment.

Companies like Natera (NTRA) and Guardant Health (GH) are pioneering this space with non-invasive tests that can detect cancer recurrence before it becomes apparent clinically. Natera’s Signatera test, for example, already has a 70% market share in the MRD space and is capable of identifying residual cancer cells long before they would be visible on a scan. Similarly, Guardant’s liquid biopsy tests are being used to monitor existing cancers and as primary screening tools for colorectal cancer, offering a less invasive alternative to traditional methods like colonoscopies. Now, doctors can discover cancer before it has grown enough to show up in traditional methods. 

Now, doctors can detect cancer at an earlier stage than is possible by traditional methods. For instance, Personalis (PSNL) can detect specific biomarkers to identify breast cancer up to 15 months before it becomes visible through imaging techniques.

These technologies have profound implications. By shifting cancer detection from a reactive to a proactive and predictive approach, healthcare practitioners can improve survival rates drastically while reducing the overall financial burdens on the healthcare systems. Our research suggests that the widespread adoption of these innovative diagnostic tools could grow the market for MRD testing alone from $10 billion today to $120 billion over the next business cycle.

In addition to the difference it is making for early detection, artificial intelligence also is improving diagnostics. Tempus AI (TEM), for example, is revolutionizing personalized medicine through its multimodal data platform, integrating genomic, clinical, and imaging data to provide comprehensive insights into patient care. By leveraging its vast dataset—50 times larger than the previous largest oncology dataset—Tempus AI enables more accurate diagnoses, better treatment decisions, and improved patient outcomes. The platform's ability to analyze complex biological data at scale not only enhances the precision of medical interventions but also creates a network effect in which the more data it collects, the more valuable it becomes, the more it benefits patients and healthcare providers alike.

Lastly, our research suggests that companies will position themselves strategically as providers addressing the multiomic revolution. Twist Bioscience (TWST) specializes in manufacturing DNA-based products that are critical for applications like liquid biopsy and MRD testing, its products already used in over 65% of liquid biopsy tests conducted globally. Twist's synthetic DNA is used to create oligonucleotides, minute pieces of genetic material that are essential for detecting circulating tumor DNA in blood samples. This capability is a key component of advanced liquid biopsy techniques.

Its technology also supports other areas of genomics research, including antibody screening and gene editing, making it an indispensable player in the biotech industry. By offering highly customizable and scalable DNA synthesis at a lower cost—10 times lower than traditional methods—Twist enables researchers and companies to accelerate their development of new diagnostics and treatments, driving the next generation of personalized medicine. 



Key Points

  • Market Expansion: ARK research suggests that increasing demand for early cancer detection could grow the MRD testing market $10 billion to $120 billion within the next decade. 
  • Survival Rates: Early detection of colorectal cancer via liquid biopsy can improve 5-year survival rates from 14% to over 90%.
  • Adoption Rates: Approximately 65% of US medical centers utilize AI-enhanced liquid biopsy technologies, signaling widespread adoption in clinical practice.


HOW TO CAPTURE THESE ADVANCEMENTS IN YOUR INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO

Technological innovations are making early detection and precision medicine the new standard of care. Remarkably, the companies leading the race in these fields are relatively absent from the healthcare investment benchmarks; as a result, they are not well-represented in many investor portfolios. With an active share of 95% relative to the S&P 500 Healthcare Index, ARK seeks to provide investors a portfolio solution that gives them exposure to these rapidly unfolding, game-changing developments: the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG)

Source: Morningstar as of 9/30/2024.


Important Information

Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives and risks as well as charges and expenses of an ARK ETF before investing. This and other information are contained in the ARK ETFs' prospectuses and summary prospectuses, which may be obtained by visiting www.ark-funds.com. The prospectus and summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing. 

Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

The S&P 500® Index is a widely recognized capitalization-weighted index that measures the performance of the large-capitalization sector of the U.S. stock market. The MSCI World Index represents large and mid-cap equity performance across 23 developed markets countries. Returns shown for the MSCI World Index are net of foreign withholding taxes applicable to U.S. investors. The Health Care Select Sector Index is a benchmark that tracks the performance of healthcare companies in the S&P 500 Index. The S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index represents the biotechnology sub-industry portion of the S&P Total Markets Index (S&P TMI). The S&P TMI tracks all the U.S. common stocks listed on the NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ National Market and NASDAQ Small Cap exchanges.

Securities in ARKG’s portfolio will not match those in any index. The actively managed ETF is benchmark agnostic and corresponding portfolios may have significant non-correlation to any index. Index returns are generally provided as an overall market indicator. You cannot invest directly in an index. Although reinvestment of dividend and interest payments is assumed, no expenses are netted against an index’s returns. Index performance information was furnished by sources deemed reliable and is believed to be accurate, however, no warranty or representation is made as to the accuracy thereof and the information is subject to correction.

An investment in an ARK ETF is subject to risks and you can lose money on your investment in an ARK ETF. There can be no assurance that the ARK ETFs will achieve their investment objectives. The ARK ETFs’ portfolios are more volatile than broad market averages. The ARK ETFs also have specific risks, which are described in the ARK ETFs' prospectuses.

ARK Investment Management, LLC is the investment adviser to the ARK ETFs.

Foreside Fund Services LLC, distributor.

Not FDIC Insured – No Bank Guarantee – May Lose Value

ARK’s statements are not an endorsement of any company or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. ARK and its clients as well as its related persons may (but do not necessarily) have financial interests in securities or issuers that are discussed. Certain of the statements contained may be statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on ARK’s current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements.

Explore ARK Funds

Featured Funds:

ARKG Icon

ARK Genomic Revolution ETF

See All

ARK Trade Notifications

ARK offers fully transparent Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”) and provides investors with trade information for all actively managed ETFs.