Earlier this month Labiotech revealed its roundup of the prime biotech offers for Might 2026. Heading the checklist was Angelini Pharma’s $4.1 billion acquisition of Catalyst Prescription drugs, simply forward of UCB’s acquisition of Candid Therapeutics for $2.2 billion. For its half, Lilly additionally acquired Curevo for $1.5 billion, and GSK took over at SiranBio for as much as a billion in milestone funds. In the meantime, in Labiotech’s abstract of the prime funding rounds in Might, corporations like Apogee Therapeutics ($1.3 billion), CellCentirc ($220 million), CREAT Medicines ($122 million), Cytospire Therapeutics ($83 million) and Accro Bioscience ($50 million) had been 5 of the ten largest non-public biotech funding rounds on the planet.
All of those corporations signify vastly totally different approaches to biotech and biopharma, with focus areas in immunology, oncology, inflammatory illness, uncommon illness, infectious illness, and synthetic intelligence (AI). Geographically they are often present in North America, Europe, and Asia, and whereas Catalyst was based again in 2002, Cytospire and Candid had been launched extra just lately in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Moreover their current success grabbing headlines, these corporations have little in frequent throughout the board, save for one factor: their names. On this article we take a dive into the naming conventions that exist within the biotech {industry} and discover why the subsequent huge factor in biopharma is extra prone to be an organization with a reputation starting with A, C or S than with W, Y or Z.
Biotech firm names and pre-internet conventions
When Jeff Bezos was selecting the title for his on-line bookshop he needed to deal with the ‘magic’ of ordering a product on-line within the early Nineteen Nineties, so he known as it Cadabra, as within the magician’s chorus ‘abracadabra’. After a lawyer confused the title with the time period ‘cadaver’, nevertheless, he rapidly modified the title to Amazon, noting that it might connote one of many world’s greatest rivers and land very close to the highest of any alphabetized checklist of corporations in a listing.
Within the pre-internet period, having an organization title that began with an A was preferable to 1 that began with a Z as, in alphabetically ordered phone directories, clients had been extra prone to favor names close to the entrance of the guide than close to the again. Whereas this doubtless influenced the considering of Jeff Bezos in 1994, thirty years later there isn’t any built-in benefit to selecting an organization title from the start of the alphabet than the tip.
But in 2026, and throughout virtually all sectors of the biotech {industry}, corporations proceed to favor names that start with letters like A and C and keep away from names starting with W, X, Y and Z. With just a few exceptions, from antibodies and AI to vaccines and viral vectors, biotechs appear to play by the principles of the pre-internet period relating to naming their companies.
Assessing greater than 12,000 biotech firm names
We analyzed greater than 12,000 distinctive names of lively corporations within the biotech and biopharma area listed within the public listing at BioPharmGuy, an all-inclusive listing and knowledge supplier based mostly in the US. These corporations had been then categorized by their focus space, for instance, biosimilars, generics, radiopharmaceuticals, or considered one of 30 different classes. The place an organization was lively in multiple class, they had been listed twice, and this was the case for greater than 3,300 of the businesses assessed. With the assistance of some Excel formulation and Claude AI, we then analyzed which letters had been the commonest first letters for names in these classes.
We discovered that sure letters had been persistently amongst the commonest beginning letters for biotech names. Particularly,
Names starting with A had been among the many three commonest names in each class besides for 2, and was the commonest beginning letter for a corporation title in 22 of 33 categoriesNames starting with C and S had been among the many three commonest names in 22 of 33 classes every, and had been every the commonest beginning letters for a corporation title in 3 of 33 classes
On the different finish of the size, firm names starting with Q, W, X, Y and Z had been among the many least frequent throughout all biotech and biopharma classes.
In sure classes another letters bucked the A/C/S title development. Biosimilar firm names mostly started with a B, genetic and genomic firm names mostly started with a G, and nanotechnology corporations mostly selected names starting with an N.
But there have been additionally some sectors of the biopharma area the place the traditional guidelines don’t appear to use and company naming conventions appear to be turned on their head.
Two exceptions to the rule: microbiome and psychedelics
Relating to microbiome/bacteriome corporations, the commonest letter for names to cluster is M, adopted by E. In our final evaluation of the realm in October 2025, we highlighted 11 of essentially the most superior microbiome gamers and, of these 11, eight had been corporations that had names starting with both M or E.
Equally, in psychedelics, firm names clustered round P, S and B. Admittedly, the variety of corporations lively within the area (47) is considerably decrease than most others, however different comparatively small sub-sectors akin to biostorage (45), analysis proteins (59) tissue engineering (58) don’t reveal the identical divergence from the industry-wide conference round favoring names starting with A, C and S.
Even right here, exceptions show the rule. Beckley PsyTech, an organization that we spoke with on the Past Biotech podcast in 2025, bucks the development right here. The corporate engaged on psychedelics for depressive dysfunction mixed with atai Life Sciences in 2025, rising because the newly named AtaiBeckley, the only firm within the area with a company model starting with an A.
Why achieve this many biotech names start with an A?
There are at the least three the reason why biotech corporations select names that cluster round sure letters.
The primary is what could be known as the phone book legacy: corporations are eager to be listed first in alphabetized directories and so select firm names that start with letters like A, B and C. Whereas there’s little benefit within the age of AI-powered search queries when it comes to discovery to calling your self Aardvark Therapeutics, a century of phone listing listings has left its mark. With the biotech {industry} increasing quickly within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties at exactly the purpose that early web directories like Yahoo! mirrored their offline predecessors, this could be a naming conference that the {industry} absorbed and has not but shed.
The second pertains to the sound of the letters when pronounced. Sure sounds, together with these just like the A in English, sound extra open and assertive. Therefore, corporations cluster round phrases like Astra and Apex – certainly, there are at the least three totally different corporations known as Apex Pharma competing for {industry} consideration. As Man Powell, President and Founder at ProRelevant, a advertising and consulting agency in Atlanta, informed Labiotech, “I’m not so certain the beginning letter is vital. I might say, it’s extra how simple it’s to say and keep in mind.”
A 3rd cause is that biotech and biopharma is a enterprise like another and the naming conventions within the {industry} are aligned with broader patterns that span all industries. Writing at Branding Technique Insider, Steve Rivkin assessed the commonest letters to start model names and the commonest letters firstly of ticker symbols on the New York Inventory Alternate (NYSE). Amongst model names, C, S, M and A names had been the commonest, whereas for the ticker symbols it was A, C, S and B. Little shock, maybe, that biotech and biopharma comply with the broader enterprise traits round company nomenclature.
A biotech by another title would odor as candy?
Biotech and biopharma corporations persistently cluster their company names round sure letters of the alphabet. Whether or not in a nod to a pre-internet interval, an try and create a lovely sound and an emotional reference to the receiver, or an alignment with company norms throughout the remainder of the financial system, the sample is obvious to see. Solely in a handful of sub-sectors of the {industry} are the commonest names phrases starting with B or N as a substitute of A, C and S.
But creativity nonetheless abounds and biotech corporations rebrand repeatedly to embrace monikers that higher signify their values, enterprise, and therapeutic focus. Even when there are a whole lot of corporations that select names that begin with the letter A, success shouldn’t be tied to alphabetical order: the world’s largest animal well being firm is Zoetis, with revenues topping $8 billion yearly, and Zymeworks, a Canadian biotech, raised $59 million in its 2017 IPO on the Toronto Inventory Alternate, on the time the biggest Canadian biotech IPO in additional than a decade. The {industry} is actually one the place success may be discovered from AAA Pharma to ZZ Biotech.
