Bioscience Sizable Contributor for 25 U.S. Regions

The question of whether or not there is enough opportunity for economic development through public-private investment in biosciences has been answered with a pretty strong “yes,” based on a report released Jan. 29 by Battelle and BIO.

 

Growing The Nation's Biotech Sector: A Regional Perspective reveals that more than half of the nation's 361 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) have a specialization (employment concentration that is 20 percent greater than the national average) in at least one of four major bioscience subsectors: drugs and pharmaceuticals; medical devices and equipment; research, testing and medical laboratories; and agricultural feedstocks and chemicals.

 

Many metro areas, including Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and St. Louis, have a broad employment base in three or even four of the bioscience subsectors. Other metro areas are highly specialized in one or two particular subsectors, such as Minneapolis (medical devices), Washington, D.C. (research, testing, and medical labs), and Pittsburgh (research, testing, and medical labs and medical devices). Only two metro areas, Lincoln, Neb., and Madison, Wisc., have a specialization in all four bioscience subsectors.

 

The report’s identification of the concentration or clusters should help local and state practitioners to tailor TBED policies, programs and recruitment efforts more appropriately.

 

Each of 25 MSAs having more than 10,000 total bioscience jobs, according to the 48-page table-intensive report. The metropolitan area with the most bioscience jobs - more than 110,000 - is the New York City MSA, which includes Northern New Jersey and Long Island.

 

The new report identifies those MSAs that:

• Have a large number of bioscience workers, defined as having at least a 2 percent share of total national employment;
• Are highly specialized (i.e. having a concentration of regional jobs that is 50 percent more than the national average); and,
• Have regions with "emerging" bioscience sectors. These are metro areas with employment between 500 and 5,000 that experienced job growth of at least 20 percent from 2001 to 2004.

In addition to reporting on local areas meeting statistical thresholds, the report profiles seven specific metropolitan regions with significant activities or niches in one or many of the bioscience subsectors. Regional profiles were prepared for Boulder, Colo.; Durham, N.C.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Kansas City; Madison, Wisc.; Philadelphia; and St. Louis. Such regions are investing to create the research base, talent pool, capital markets, and commercialization capabilities to build a critical mass of bioscience firms.

 

Links to this report and more than 4,500 additional TBED-related research reports, strategic plans and other papers can be found at the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center, jointly developed by the Technology Administration and SSTI, at http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org/.



Growing The Nation's Biotech Sector: A Regional Perspective is available at: http://www.bio.org/local/battelle2007/



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