Salesmotion's life-sciences data holds 2,298 industry sponsors that lead at least one active interventional drug trial updated in the last 12 months. Small molecules are the most common modality (540 companies), followed by antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (434). Cell therapies (172), gene therapies (164) and other proteins and peptides (167) form the next tier. Vaccines (94), RNA therapies (62) and radiopharmaceuticals (59) are the smallest groups. Most sponsors are small: of those with a known headcount, 78% have fewer than 200 employees.
Key takeaways (data as of 22 October 2026)
- 2,298 companies lead an active, recently updated interventional drug trial as the industry sponsor.
- Their most advanced active trial: Phase 1 for 468, Phase 2 for 941, Phase 3 for 733, Phase 4 (post-approval) for 156.
- Cell, gene and radiopharmaceutical sponsors skew early: more of them are in Phase 1 and 2 than in Phase 3.
- Small molecules, proteins and RNA skew late: the largest group of their sponsors already has a Phase 3 running.
- Modality counts are floors. 1,070 sponsors (47%) have no trial whose modality can be read from the registry entry, for example because the compound is known only by a code name.
Download the aggregate table (CSV)
Why Modality and Phase Decide Who to Call
If you sell into biotech (CRO services, CDMO capacity, bioanalytical testing, regulatory consulting, software), the sponsor's modality decides whether your offer fits at all, and the phase decides when they buy.
"Small molecule and large molecule are going to be completely different target audiences." Business development manager, CRO
"really, we don't do much with phase threes at that point. They have a CRO locked in." Business development manager, CRO
A sponsor list that is not cut by modality and phase sends the team after companies that cannot buy. The counts below show how big each slice is.
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How Many Biotech Companies Work in Each Modality?
| Modality | Sponsor companies | With an active Phase 1 | With an active Phase 2 | With an active Phase 3 | With an active Phase 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small molecules | 540 | 190 | 260 | 263 | 48 |
| Antibodies and ADCs | 434 | 164 | 274 | 173 | 27 |
| Cell therapies | 172 | 93 | 94 | 33 | 2 |
| Other proteins and peptides | 167 | 36 | 86 | 103 | 12 |
| Gene therapies and gene editing | 164 | 51 | 108 | 44 | 4 |
| Vaccines | 94 | 33 | 55 | 36 | 8 |
| RNA therapies | 62 | 18 | 37 | 29 | 3 |
| Radiopharmaceuticals | 59 | 36 | 22 | 12 | 1 |
A company appears in every phase column where it has an active trial in that modality, so the phase columns add up to more than the total. A company working in two modalities counts in both rows.
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Clinical-Stage Companies by Highest Phase
Here each company counts once, at its most advanced active trial in any modality.
| Most advanced active trial | Companies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 468 | 20% |
| Phase 2 | 941 | 41% |
| Phase 3 (near approval) | 733 | 32% |
| Phase 4 (post-approval) | 156 | 7% |
By modality, the most advanced phase looks like this:
| Modality | Highest active phase: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small molecules | 92 | 156 | 241 | 48 |
| Antibodies and ADCs | 81 | 173 | 153 | 27 |
| Cell therapies | 59 | 79 | 32 | 2 |
| Other proteins and peptides | 16 | 43 | 95 | 12 |
| Gene therapies and gene editing | 30 | 87 | 42 | 4 |
| Vaccines | 17 | 40 | 29 | 8 |
| RNA therapies | 11 | 22 | 26 | 3 |
| Radiopharmaceuticals | 29 | 17 | 12 | 1 |
What this means for prospecting:
- Early-phase sellers (Phase 1 and 2 services) find the most room in cell therapy, gene therapy and radiopharmaceuticals, where most sponsors have not reached Phase 3.
- Late-phase and commercial sellers find the largest pools in small molecules, proteins and peptides, and RNA, where the biggest group of sponsors is already in Phase 3.
- Clinical-stage companies near approval: 733 sponsors have a Phase 3 as their most advanced active trial. That list is the starting point for launch, market-access and commercial-manufacturing offers.
Sample: Listed Companies by Modality
The lists below are a sample, not a ranking. Each company is publicly listed, has fewer than 10,000 employees and leads at least one active trial in that modality in Salesmotion's data. Larger pharma groups, subsidiaries of larger groups and Salesmotion customers are left out. Most sponsors in every modality are private.
Small molecule biotech companies
AFT Pharmaceuticals, Alumis, Basilea Pharmaceutica, BeOne Medicines, Celcuity, Cogent Biosciences, Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Exelixis, IDEAYA Biosciences, Incyte, Kura Oncology, Nuvation Bio, Olema Pharmaceuticals, Onconic Therapeutics, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Verastem, Xuanzhu Biopharmaceutical
Antibody and ADC companies
Almirall, Arcus Biosciences, argenx, BeOne Medicines, Bicara Therapeutics, Biogen, Climb Bio, Dianthus Therapeutics, Genmab, Inhibrx Biosciences, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Lepu Biopharma, MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, RemeGen, Scholar Rock, Shanghai Henlius Biotech, Summit Therapeutics, TG Therapeutics, Vir Biotechnology
Cell therapy companies
Allogene Therapeutics, Artiva Biotherapeutics, Autolus Therapeutics, Caribou Biosciences, Cartesian Therapeutics, CRISPR Therapeutics, Fate Therapeutics, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Kyverna Therapeutics, Legend Biotech, Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Lyell Immunopharma, Mesoblast, Nkarta, ProKidney, Sana Biotechnology, TScan Therapeutics
Gene therapy and gene editing companies
4D Molecular Therapeutics, Candel Therapeutics, CG Oncology, CRISPR Therapeutics, GenSight Biologics, Lexeo Therapeutics, MeiraGTx, Ocugen, Passage Bio, Precigen, Precision BioSciences, Prime Medicine, REGENXBIO, Replimune, Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Sarepta Therapeutics, Solid Biosciences, Taysha Gene Therapies, Ultragenyx
Protein and peptide companies
Altimmune, Alvotech, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Ascendis Pharma, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Camurus, DiaMedica Therapeutics, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, MBX Biosciences, PharmaEssentia, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Vera Therapeutics, Zealand Pharma
RNA therapy companies
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Dyne Therapeutics, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Praxis Precision Medicines, Sirnaomics, Stoke Therapeutics, Vir Biotechnology
Vaccine companies
CanSino Biologics, Changchun BCHT Biotechnology, Elicio Therapeutics, Everest Medicines, GeoVax, Nykode Therapeutics, OSE Immunotherapeutics, Scancell, Vaxart, Vaxcyte
Radiopharmaceutical companies
AC Immune, Cellectar Biosciences, Curasight, Immunome, Molecular Partners, Monopar Therapeutics, Pentixapharm, PeptiDream, Perspective Therapeutics, Philogen, Radiopharm Theranostics, Spago Nanomedical, Telix Pharmaceuticals
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Director, Strategic Accounts, Guild Education
How to Find Preclinical Biotech Companies
Trial registries list trials, not programs, so no registry-based count can include preclinical companies. They become visible at their first trial: the 468 sponsors whose most advanced active trial is Phase 1 are the earliest group a registry shows.
To find companies before that point, look for the events that come before a first trial:
- Financings. Seed and Series A rounds that name a lead program and a timeline to the clinic.
- Grants. NIH, SBIR and similar awards for IND-enabling work.
- Hiring. Open roles in clinical operations, regulatory affairs or CMC at a company with no registered trial.
- Publications and conferences. Preclinical data presented at scientific meetings.
- Partnerships. Research collaborations and licensing deals with larger groups.
Each of these shows up as a buying signal on the account, which is how a sponsor list stays current between registry updates. The B2B buying signals benchmark shows how often each kind of signal appears.
Run Your Own Filter
Salesmotion's life-sciences module finds sponsors by therapeutic area, modality, phase and geography, then watches them for trial, funding, hiring and leadership signals. Bring your target modality and phase and we will run the filter with you on a call.
Book a 30-minute demo or see Salesmotion for life sciences.
Methodology
Source. Salesmotion's life-sciences database, read on 22 October 2026. The trial records come from ClinicalTrials.gov. Only aggregate counts and publicly listed companies are shown.
Trials. Interventional trials with status recruiting, not yet recruiting, active not recruiting or enrolling by invitation, last updated on ClinicalTrials.gov between 22 October 2025 and 21 October 2026. Trials with no drug phase (device and behavioural studies) are left out of the phase and modality counts.
Sponsors. The company named as lead sponsor. Companies are separated from hospitals, universities and other non-industry sponsors by Salesmotion's organisation-type classification; about a quarter of sponsors had no classification and were classified by legal-entity name (Inc, Ltd, GmbH, Therapeutics and similar). Duplicate records for the same company are merged by website domain. 2,298 companies remain.
Coverage. This is the sponsor universe in Salesmotion's data, not a census of every trial worldwide. Trials registered only outside ClinicalTrials.gov are not included.
Modality. Assigned per trial from the intervention names and types: international nonproprietary name stems (for example -mab for antibodies, -cept and -tide for proteins and peptides, -siran and -rsen for RNA, -cel for cell therapies, -vec for gene therapies), named technologies (CAR-T, AAV, CRISPR, mRNA, ADC payloads, radioisotopes) and Salesmotion's own modality tags. A trial is counted as small molecule only when no other modality matched and the drug name carries a small-molecule stem or an oral dosage form. Compounds known only by a code name stay unclassified, which is why the modality counts are floors: 1,228 of the 2,298 sponsors have at least one classified trial. A hand check of 64 randomly drawn trials, eight per modality, agreed with the assigned modality in 54 cases (84%); gene and RNA therapy were the least precise.
Phase. Early Phase 1 counts as Phase 1. Combined phases (Phase 1/2, Phase 2/3) count at the higher phase.
Size. Headcount from Salesmotion's company records: 1,134 sponsors have fewer than 200 employees, 182 have 200 to 999, 86 have 1,000 to 9,999 and 45 have 10,000 or more. 851 have no headcount on record.
Sample lists. Publicly listed companies with fewer than 10,000 employees, picked from those with the most active trials in each modality, after removing larger pharma groups, subsidiaries of larger groups and Salesmotion customers. Each listing was checked against a current share quote on 22 October 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many biotech companies are in clinical trials?
Salesmotion's data holds 2,298 industry sponsors leading at least one active interventional drug trial updated in the 12 months to 21 October 2026. 941 of them have Phase 2 as their most advanced active trial, the largest group.
How do I find biotech companies by modality?
Start from trial registries, classify each trial's interventions by modality (drug-name stems such as -mab, -cel, -vec or -siran, plus named technologies like CAR-T or AAV), then group by lead sponsor. Salesmotion does this classification across its life-sciences data and lets you filter sponsors by modality, phase, therapeutic area and geography.
How many small molecule biotech companies are there?
At least 540 industry sponsors lead an active small-molecule trial in Salesmotion's data. The real number is higher, because many small-molecule programs appear on registries only under code names.
Which modality has the most early-stage companies?
Cell therapy. 93 cell therapy sponsors have an active Phase 1 trial against 33 with an active Phase 3, and 59 of the 172 cell therapy sponsors have nothing beyond Phase 1. Radiopharmaceuticals show the same early skew.
Is there a list of preclinical biotech companies?
Not from trial registries, because preclinical companies have no registered trial yet. They show up in financing rounds, grants, hiring for clinical and regulatory roles, and research partnerships. Tracking those signals is how sales teams find preclinical sponsors before their first trial.
Can I download this data?
Yes. The CSV contains the modality and phase counts on this page. Cite it as "Salesmotion life-sciences data, October 2026".
