# There are secretly two kinds of biotech The first type is focused on human health - specifically therapeutics and screening for conditions. This is what leaps immediately to mind when most people think of biotech. The second type is focused on all the other things that cells and biological molecules can do. Everything from lab-grown animal products like meat and milk, to bacteria that can create jet fuel, to crazy things like [[Animals that act as tools]] or [[Artificial Muscles as Linear Actuators]]. ### Healthtech The first type of biotech - let’s call it healthtech - is what most people think of when they think of biotech. For example [[Science Business - Book]] defines Biotech as being synonymous with finding drugs. Healthtech (especially drug focused) has established sales channels ([[Therapeutics have established sales channels]].) Healthtech has clear value and a small market risk because governments and insurance companies around the world spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on therapeutics. The low market and channel risks mean that all the risk is in the technology: actually doing the work to develop the technology (and get it through regulation. ) [[It is unlikely for things to come into Healthtech from Left Field because both creating and investing in it is fairly obvious]] therefore it’s hard to break into. The question “can you be used for health tech?” Is asked of basically every emerging technology. There are “weird” things that sometimes start to emerge around healthtech for example, leveraging the connection between the microbiome and health or using the optic nerve as an interface to the brain. These have much higher market and channel risk so while they are tied to health they don’t fall into the same mental bucket. ### Celltech The second type of biotech is literally “everything else.” Let’s call it celltech - basically technology that leverages cells and biological molecules as tools. The cells could be in the form of living things or not. There are too many different directions to enumerate. Despite having much larger scope than Healthtech, it both raises far less VC money and generates much less revenue. You can look at this as a downside or you can look at it as opportunity for value creation. [[It is possible that healthtech and therapeutics in the early 2020s is to biotech what calculation and mainframes were to computers in the 1960s]]. <!-- #evergreen --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/There+are+secretly+two+kinds+of+biotech) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/There+are+secretly+two+kinds+of+biotech)