Marine Biotechnology and Blue Pharmaceuticals: Advances, Challenges and Global Health Implications

Abstract

This review surveys marine biotechnology and blue pharmaceuticals from 2010 through 2025, consolidating evidence on how ocean-derived biodiversity is being converted into drug leads and therapeutics, such as the 13 FDA-approved marine drugs including Ziconotide and Eribulin. A systematic review had been conducted to identify peer-reviewed articles on marine biotechnology/ blue pharmaceuticals from 2010 onward until 2025. Approximately 40,000 marine natural products have been isolated to date, with 38 compounds advancing to clinical trials and 13 achieving FDA approval Chemical, pharmacological, and bioprocess literature are integrated to delineate trends in discovery, mechanism determination and preclinical-to-clinical translation. Highlights included continued growth of structurally unusual marine natural products, significant advances in oncology, anti-infective therapy, pain and CNS candidates and growing application of genome-directed discovery, engineered biosynthesis and enhanced downstream processing. Sustainable supply remains the ubiquitous bottleneck, with assessed solutions ranging from microbially and algal based production to source organism aquaculture, integrated blue-economy aligned microalgae-based biorefineries. This review categorizes recent advances into three key areas: chemical diversity and modes of action, therapeutic development pipelines and durable, ethical production approaches. Specific gaps are in target deconvolution of complex scaffolds, scalable manufacturing of low‐abundance metabolites and harmonized sustainability metrics. By providing a comprehensive overview of the field's progress and challenges, this review offers a forward-looking perspective on the critical role of marine resources in the future of global health.