About NAT

The nucleic acid therapeutics (NAT) market is undergoing rapid development and showing high growth potential. While challenges remain in applying NAT beyond rare genetic diseases, NAT is widely expected to revolutionise and accelerate drug discovery and development. It also has the potential to greatly expand the range of potential therapeutic targets beyond proteins to target RNA. In addition, NAT offers the potential for rapid development of personalised treatment and vaccines. These features were dramatically demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic by the speed at which vaccines were developed and approved for use to respond to new viral variants. The award of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Dr Katalin Karikó and Dr Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications which enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 is further testament to this powerful form of therapeutics.