For those that are not familiar with the Life Science industry, here's a primer written by MIT Doctoral Candidate Aziza Agia.
California’s Biotech Clusters: Like other advanced knowledge industries, the biotechnology industry tends to cluster in areas with competitive advantage. Most biotech research and production occurs in nine metropolitan “super clusters:” Boston; San Francisco Bay Area; San Diego; Research Triangle Park, NC; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; New York/New Jersey; Seattle; and Washington DC/Baltimore.
Within California, the biotechnology industry is clustered in three centers: the San Francisco Bay Area, the Los Angeles region, and the San Diego region. The Bay Area is widely regarded as having the largest concentration of life sciences firms in the world. The region’s leading life sciences association, BayBio, estimates that the nine counties and 101 cities comprising the Bay Area are home to 1,377 life sciences companies, employing 90,000 direct life sciences employees and 180,000 indirect employees, and paying $6 billion in wages. The life sciences industry in the Bay Area has produced 449 marketed products, and has 492 products in Phase Two or Three clinical trials. Moreover, Northern California is home to 34 percent of active U.S venture capital firms, a regional concentration that is among the highest in the world.
San Diego County is also one of the nation’s major biotechnology centers. While the biotechnology industry employs only one percent of all workers in the U.S., it employs 2.6 percent of workers in San Diego (Egan and Johnston 2006). The region’s life sciences association, BIOCOM, estimates that the life sciences industry in Southern California employs more than 105,000 employees at more than 1,800 companies in 9 countries. Moreover, Southern California healthcare venture capital was $1.68 billion in 2007; the region also received more than $1.79 billion in research funding from the National Institute of Health.
The following table shows the number of companies in the state’ three major biotechnology centers based on the National Biotechnology Industry Committee definition:
Table 1.7. Biotechnology Establishments by Subsector,Selected Regions,California, 2007
|
Subsector |
Bay Area Establishments |
Los Angeles Establishments |
San Diego Establishments |
|
Agricultural Biotech |
178 |
288 |
125 |
|
Industrial Biotech |
37 |
147 |
19 |
|
Medical Devices |
126 |
103 |
36 |
|
Medical Equipment & Supplies |
119 |
247 |
57 |
|
Pharmaceuticals & Related Manufacturing |
109 |
159 |
73 |
|
Total |
569 |
944 |
310 |
Source: Biotech Work Portal, www.biotechwork.org, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employed Workers, Establishment Size Series. Contains employment and establishments by NAICS industry.
