Why a Double-Digit Job Growth is Set to Hit This Biotech Hub

March 1, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

RALEIGH – The biotech and life sciences business is booming in North Carolina.

Since 2010, the state’s science industry has grown by more than 11 percent, with the number of jobs related to life sciences having increased by 15 percent, Raleigh’s WRAL reported this morning, citing a report by the N.C. Biotech Center. According to the report, there was a dip in job growth in 2014, but in 2016, related jobs “surged by 31,000.” It’s no wonder that North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park is an important hub in the nation’s life sciences industry. On North Carolina alone, the economic impact of life sciences has grown by 34 percent over the past eight years to $86 billion.

North Carolina has more than 650 life sciences companies within its borders, which provide an average salary of $78,000 and directly employ approximately 63,000 people. The number of people directly employed by life science companies has grown over the past six years from 2010 employment of 56,842, according to the report.

Part of that growth is driven by the number of research universities in the state, including Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and Wake Forest University. N.C. Secretary of Commerce Anthony Copeland praised the university system for its impact on the state’s growing life sciences industry.

"North Carolina is one of the best places in the world for life sciences and a rich place to invest because of our universities and our talent," Copeland told a biotech conference, according to WRAL. "It's one of the few states where a product can go from lab to manufacturing. Time and again, people find inspiration in NC."

The impact of the life sciences industry on North Carolina is even more impressive when you look at the number of people with related employment. That number for 2016 climbs to nearly 260,000 people from 2010’s 226,823 employees, which accounts for about 5 percent of all employment in North Carolina.

Life science that call North Carolina home include Veloxis, Patheon , Rho, Mayne Pharma , Cempra , INC Research and more. Plenty of large pharmaceutical companies also maintain presences in the state including GlaxoSmithKline , Pfizer , Biogen and Bayer .

While many of the companies make their homes in the vaunted Research Triangle Park, the life sciences industry is scattered across North Carolina, which indicated how broad of an impact the industry makes on the Tar Heel state.

"These broad impacts are extending across and throughout the state, reflecting the diverse nature of North Carolina’s industry and revealing one of the core value propositions for life sciences economic development—local areas, both urban and rural, can develop a comparative advantage in an industry niche," the Biotech Center said in its report.