Global Peptide Research Hubs: US, EU, Asia-Pacific
Peptide science has become a global enterprise. With over 100 FDA-approved peptide drugs on the market and a therapeutics sector projected to exceed $100 billion by 2033, institutions worldwide are racing to discover, synthesize, and deliver the next generation of peptide-based medicines.
Peptide science has become a global enterprise. With over 100 FDA-approved peptide drugs on the market and a therapeutics sector projected to exceed $100 billion by 2033, institutions worldwide are racing to discover, synthesize, and deliver the next generation of peptide-based medicines. But this research isn't distributed evenly. Specific cities, institutions, and countries have emerged as concentrated hubs of peptide innovation — each with distinct strengths, funding models, and areas of specialization.
This guide maps the major peptide research centers across three regions: the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. Whether you're tracking where breakthroughs originate, understanding funding flows, or looking at how collaboration networks shape the field, this is your starting point.
Table of Contents
- The United States: Scale, Funding, and Biotech Density
- Europe: Manufacturing Strength and Scientific Societies
- Asia-Pacific: The Fastest-Growing Region
- Global Funding Patterns
- Collaboration Networks and Cross-Border Research
- Emerging Hubs to Watch
- FAQ
- The Bottom Line
- References
The United States: Scale, Funding, and Biotech Density
The U.S. dominates global peptide research by nearly every metric — total publications, clinical trials initiated, FDA approvals, and private-sector investment. North America accounted for roughly 60% of the global peptide therapeutics market in 2024, and the U.S. alone represented about 82% of the North American share.
Boston-Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Boston-Cambridge corridor is the world's densest biotech ecosystem, home to over 1,000 biotech companies alongside Harvard, MIT, and dozens of research hospitals. For peptides specifically, this cluster matters because it houses both academic discovery labs and the commercial infrastructure to move molecules from bench to bedside.
Novo Nordisk — the company behind semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) — operates major research facilities in the area. Eli Lilly, maker of tirzepatide, has expanded its Boston presence. Startups like PepGen (focused on cell-penetrating peptides for neuromuscular diseases) and Aegle Therapeutics (dermatological peptide applications) are based here too.
MIT researchers have been particularly active in peptide-adjacent work. In 2024, a collaboration between MIT and Alphabet's DeepMind applied machine learning models to predict peptide-drug interactions, aiming to improve success rates in preclinical trials. The university also partnered with the University of Geneva on the 5th International Proteins and Peptides Conference, focused on structure, function, and biotechnology.
San Diego, California
San Diego hosted the American Peptide Symposium (APS) 2025 — the premier U.S. peptide conference — and drew record-breaking attendance. The city's biotech cluster has long specialized in drug discovery and peptide synthesis, with companies like CPC Scientific (peptide and oligonucleotide manufacturing) operating from here.
The Scripps Research Institute and the Salk Institute provide a deep academic base, with active programs in peptide chemistry, drug design, and neuroscience applications of peptides.
San Francisco Bay Area
The Bay Area's contribution to peptides is less about synthesis and more about the computational tools that are reshaping discovery. Companies like Insilico Intelligence and Recursion Pharmaceuticals use deep learning models to accelerate peptide-based drug development. The region's AI-biotech crossover has made it a natural home for computational peptide design.
Other Notable U.S. Hubs
- Research Triangle, North Carolina: Home to growing pharmaceutical R&D operations with peptide synthesis capabilities.
- Northwestern University, Chicago: In 2024, researchers demonstrated "dancing molecules" — bioactive hydrogels using peptide-functionalized materials to regenerate cartilage in animal models.
- NIH Campus, Bethesda, Maryland: The National Institutes of Health funds the majority of U.S. academic peptide research through its extramural grant system. NIH allocated over $45 billion toward biomedical research in 2023, with peptide and protein drug discovery receiving a significant portion.
Europe: Manufacturing Strength and Scientific Societies
Europe's peptide ecosystem looks different from America's. Where the U.S. leads in biotech startups and venture capital, Europe holds roughly 40% of the global contract manufacturing capacity for peptide therapeutics and runs the field's most established scientific societies.
Germany
Germany is the European heavyweight in peptide research. The country combines strong government-backed funding for translational research with a pharmaceutical industry deeply invested in peptide development. Boehringer Ingelheim and Merck KGaA (based in Darmstadt) are active in peptide R&D, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) — Germany's main research funding body — spent over $630 million on health research in a recent reporting year.
BioMed X, an independent biomedical research institute in Heidelberg, launched a collaboration with Novo Nordisk in August 2025 focused on efficient oral delivery of therapeutic peptides. This kind of academic-industry partnership is characteristic of Germany's approach: structured, well-funded, and targeted at specific technical challenges.
Switzerland
Switzerland punches well above its weight. EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) and the University of Geneva run active peptide and protein research programs. The country is also home to Bachem, one of the world's largest peptide manufacturing companies, headquartered in Bubendorf.
TIDES Europe 2025 was held in Basel, Switzerland — fitting for a city that houses the headquarters of both Novartis and Roche. Roche's $5.3 billion deal with Zealand Pharma to develop petrelintide (an amylin-based peptide for weight loss) underscored Europe's role in high-value peptide partnerships.
United Kingdom
The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the world's oldest biomedical research funders, dedicating approximately £814 million to biomedical research in 2017/18. British universities — particularly Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College London — maintain strong programs in peptide chemistry and drug design. The Francis Crick Institute in London has become a hub for structural biology work relevant to peptide-receptor interactions.
France
The Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm) funds French biomedical research, including peptide-focused projects. France also hosts regular peptide symposia through joint meetings organized by the European Peptide Society (EPS).
The European Peptide Society
The EPS is the organizational backbone of European peptide science. It coordinates the biennial European Peptide Symposium — the 37th was held in Florence in 2024, and the 38th is planned for Vienna in 2026. The society also organizes specialized meetings, including the International Meeting on Antimicrobial Peptides (IMAP), and administers awards like the Josef Rudinger Memorial Lecture Award.
TIDES Europe 2026 will take place in Amsterdam (November 3-5, 2026), drawing over 900 attendees from pharmaceutical and biotech companies across the continent.
Asia-Pacific: The Fastest-Growing Region
The Asia-Pacific region is where the peptide research map is being redrawn most quickly. While it trails North America and Europe in total current output, it is growing at a higher compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for both research activity and manufacturing capacity.
Japan
Japan has one of the most mature peptide research communities in Asia. The Japanese Peptide Society, founded decades ago, regularly hosts the Japanese Peptide Symposium — the 62nd installment reflects the depth of this tradition.
In October 2025, Fukuoka hosted the 10th Modern Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis & Its Applications Symposium — only the second time this typically Australian event was held in Japan. The symposium covered advances in solid supports, instrumentation, chemistries, and protocols for synthesizing increasingly complex biological targets.
Japanese pharmaceutical companies are also major players. Takeda Pharmaceutical has expanded its peptide pipeline through strategic collaborations and acquisitions. The country's strength in precision manufacturing and quality control translates naturally to peptide synthesis.
China
China's peptide research infrastructure has expanded rapidly. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) — particularly the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) — contributes to international peptide and protein science conferences. Institutions like Dalian Polytechnic University and South China University of Technology are active in bioactive peptide research.
On the manufacturing side, China has become a major center for peptide API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) production. Companies like CPC Scientific maintain facilities there, and the country's installed peptide manufacturing capacity now represents a significant share of the global total.
The Chinese Peptide Colleagues organization is formally recognized by international peptide societies, and its members participate in symposia worldwide.
South Korea
The Korean Peptide Protein Society (KPPS) runs regular symposia — the 29th was announced recently — and Korean institutions contribute to international research. Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) and Jeju National University are both active in bioactive peptide science. Samsung Bioepis and other Korean biotech companies are building peptide-related capabilities.
India
India's peptide research community is growing, with the Indian Peptide Society serving as the primary organizing body. Indian pharmaceutical companies have long manufactured generic peptide drugs, and increasingly, Indian academic institutions are contributing original peptide research. The country's large patient populations and expanding clinical trial infrastructure make it an attractive site for peptide clinical studies.
Australia and Singapore
Australia hosts the Modern Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis Symposium and has active peptide research programs at universities like the University of Queensland and Monash University. Singapore's Peptides and Proteins Society Singapore connects researchers in this biotech-friendly city-state, which has invested heavily in life sciences infrastructure.
Global Funding Patterns
The funding picture for peptide research reflects broader biomedical research patterns, with a few dominant players and a long tail of national agencies.
| Funder | Region | Approximate Annual Health Research Budget | Approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIH | United States | $45+ billion (2023) | Untargeted extramural grants |
| European Commission (ERC/Horizon Europe) | EU | Varies by program cycle | Mix of targeted and untargeted |
| UK Medical Research Council | United Kingdom | ~£814 million (2017/18) | Mixed targeted/untargeted |
| DFG | Germany | ~$630 million | Extramural |
| Inserm | France | Varies | Intramural and extramural |
| NHMRC | Australia | Varies | Competitive grants |
| CIHR | Canada | Varies | Competitive grants |
The NIH's untargeted approach — funding investigator-initiated research rather than directing researchers toward specific goals — has historically given U.S. peptide scientists flexibility to pursue novel directions. The ERC operates similarly for its individual grants, while national agencies like Germany's DFG and the UK's MRC use a mix of strategies.
Private-sector investment adds another layer. Peptide research increasingly involves academic-industry collaborations. For example, in January 2025, Cytovance Biologics and PolyPeptide announced a strategic partnership to address rising demand for peptide drugs. In July 2025, Atombeat Inc. and BioDuro launched a collaboration on an AI-powered platform for accelerated peptide drug discovery.
Collaboration Networks and Cross-Border Research
Peptide science is increasingly global. Several factors drive this:
Conferences as connectors. Events like the American Peptide Symposium, the European Peptide Symposium, and TIDES (held in U.S., European, and Asian editions) create recurring opportunities for cross-pollination. The Peptide World Congress draws researchers from all regions.
Multi-national pharmaceutical partnerships. When Roche (Switzerland) partners with Zealand Pharma (Denmark) on a $5.3 billion peptide deal, or when BioMed X (Germany) collaborates with Novo Nordisk (Denmark) on oral peptide delivery, the resulting research networks span multiple countries and institutions.
AI-driven collaboration. The integration of machine learning into peptide discovery has created new collaboration patterns. When MIT works with DeepMind (UK/U.S.) on peptide interaction prediction, it represents a type of cross-border collaboration that didn't exist a decade ago.
Manufacturing supply chains. The peptide manufacturing market is fragmented across more than 75 companies worldwide, with production plants distributed across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. This geographical spread creates supply chain relationships that double as research partnerships.
Formal society networks. The European Peptide Society, Japanese Peptide Society, Korean Peptide Protein Society, Chinese Peptide Colleagues, Indian Peptide Society, and Peptides and Proteins Society Singapore are all formally connected through mutual recognition and reciprocal membership benefits.
Emerging Hubs to Watch
Several regions are building peptide research capacity rapidly:
- Hong Kong: Actively fostering academic-industry partnerships in peptide drug discovery, with universities collaborating with biotech firms supported by government funding incentives.
- Canada (Toronto and Montreal): The University of Toronto and McGill University are conducting notable work in peptide vaccine development and immune modulation. Canada held 14.3% of the North American peptide therapeutics market in 2024.
- Middle East: Israel's biotech sector, particularly around the Weizmann Institute and Hebrew University, has growing peptide research programs. Gulf states are investing in pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.
- Southeast Asia: Beyond Singapore, countries like Thailand and Vietnam are building pharmaceutical manufacturing infrastructure that includes peptide production capabilities.
FAQ
Which country leads in peptide research?
The United States leads by most measures — total publications, clinical trials, FDA approvals, and private investment. North America held about 60% of the global peptide therapeutics market in 2024. However, Europe leads in contract manufacturing capacity and organized scientific society activity, while Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region.
Where are the major peptide research conferences held?
The American Peptide Symposium (U.S., most recently San Diego), the European Peptide Symposium (Europe, next in Vienna 2026), TIDES events (U.S., Europe, and Asia editions), and the Japanese Peptide Symposium are the primary gatherings. The Peptide World Congress and the International Symposium on Bioactive Peptides (ISBP) also draw global attendance.
How is AI changing peptide research geography?
AI and machine learning are creating new collaboration patterns. The San Francisco Bay Area has become a hub for computational peptide design, while partnerships like MIT-DeepMind and companies like Atombeat-BioDuro represent cross-border AI-peptide collaborations. This has somewhat democratized research — any institution with strong computational infrastructure can contribute to peptide discovery regardless of wet-lab capacity.
What role does Japan play in peptide research?
Japan has one of the oldest and most established peptide research communities in Asia. The Japanese Peptide Society hosts annual symposia (now in their 62nd year), and Japanese pharmaceutical companies like Takeda are active in peptide drug development. Japan also hosted the prestigious Modern Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis Symposium in 2025.
Is peptide manufacturing concentrated in one region?
No. Manufacturing is distributed globally, with Europe holding about 40% of contract manufacturing capacity and significant capacity in Asia-Pacific. Over 75 companies worldwide offer peptide API manufacturing services, and the market is fragmented between large established players and newer entrants across all regions.
The Bottom Line
Peptide research is a genuinely global endeavor, but with clear regional specializations. The U.S. provides unmatched biotech density, NIH funding, and venture capital. Europe offers manufacturing strength, strong scientific societies, and government-backed translational research. Asia-Pacific brings the fastest growth rates, expanding manufacturing capacity, and increasingly sophisticated academic programs.
The trend lines point toward more integration, not less. Cross-border collaborations, AI-powered discovery platforms, and distributed manufacturing networks are weaving these regional hubs into a single global ecosystem. For anyone following peptide science — whether as a researcher, clinician, patient, or investor — understanding this geography helps make sense of where breakthroughs come from and where the field is headed next.
To learn more about the peptides emerging from these research hubs, explore our peptide glossary or read about how peptides work at the molecular level.
References
- Grand View Research. "Peptide Therapeutics Market Size & Industry Report, 2030." https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/peptide-therapeutics-market
- GlobeNewsWire. "Peptide Synthesis Market Research 2025-2035: Over 75 Firms Now Offer Peptide Therapeutics API Manufacturing Services Globally." https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/04/01/3053235/0/en/
- Market Data Forecast. "North America Peptide Therapeutics Market Size, 2033." https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/north-america-peptide-therapeutics-market
- European Peptide Society. https://www.eurpepsoc.com/
- The Japanese Peptide Society. https://www.peptide-soc.jp/en/
- American Peptide Symposium 2025. https://aps2025.org/
- TIDES USA 2026. https://informaconnect.com/tides/
- TIDES Europe 2026. https://informaconnect.com/tides-europe/
- Vilar S, et al. "The 10 largest public and philanthropic funders of health research in the world." Health Research Policy and Systems. 2015. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4759950/
- National Institutes of Health. Grants & Funding. https://grants.nih.gov/
- GlobeNewsWire. "Peptide Therapeutics Market Size to Surpass USD 87.21 Billion by 2035." https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/12/18/3207854/0/en/
- Wang L, et al. "Therapeutic peptides: current applications and future directions." Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy. 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-00904-4
- International Symposium on Bioactive Peptides (ISBP2025). https://pub.confit.atlas.jp/en/event/isbp2025/content/outline
- Al Musaimi O. "2024 FDA TIDES (Peptides and Oligonucleotides) Harvest." Pharmaceuticals. 2025. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11945313/