Indiana Continues to Make Its Mark as a Leading Life Sciences Center

INDIANAPOLIS, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Indiana and Hoosier communities are bringing national attention to our life sciences strengths.  According to a new Battelle/Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Report, "State BioScience Initiatives 2010", released today at the BIO International Conference in Chicago, Indiana is one of only five states with specialized bioscience employment in three of the four subsectors – Agricultural Feedstock & Chemicals, Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices & Equipment, and Research, Testing & Medical Laboratories.  Bloomington leads the nation as the number one small city in Medical Devices & Equipment, and is one of only two metropolitan areas with a specialized employment concentration in all four bioscience subsectors.  Indianapolis and Lafayette are two of only fifteen cities in the U.S. to have a specialization in three of the four subsectors that Battelle categorized. The report defines "specialized" as an employment concentration that is 20 percent or more of total U.S. employment.

"Despite the economic challenges that have affected other states and sectors, Indiana's life sciences landscape remains robust, and this report offers further evidence that we  continue to make progress," said David Johnson, President and CEO of BioCrossroads, an organization focused on investment, development and advancement of the state's signature life sciences strengths.  "BioCrossroads continues our aggressive engagement in life sciences market development activities that are helping to drive the state's sector forward – building our venture capital and entrepreneurial environment, creating new enterprises to encourage collaboration and innovation and elevating Indiana's visibility on the national map of biotechnology, medical device and healthcare IT centers."

As a whole, the number of bioscience jobs in Indiana has grown since 2001, increasing by 17.2%, and outpacing the national average of 15.8%.  The state has nearly 53,000 people working in one of the four bioscience subsectors tracked by BIO and Battelle.

Indianapolis continues to perform well in individual city listings, ranking second in the U.S. for employment concentration in Drugs and Pharmaceuticals.  The state capital also moved up four spots from the 2008 report and is now ranked fourth in the Agricultural Feedstock and Chemicals subsector, and jumped one spot from 2008 to number fifteen in the Medical Devices and Equipment category.  

Other Indiana cities were highlighted as top life sciences regions:

• Lafayette MSA (metropolitan statistical area) –  ranked 13th in the Agricultural Feedstock and Chemicals subsector for small MSAs (total private employment less than 75,000).  In the Drugs and Pharmaceuticals category, Lafayette ranks tenth.
• Bloomington MSA – Bloomington is out front as the number one small MSA in the Medical Devices and Equipment category.  It also climbed four positions from tenth in the 2008 report to third this year in Drugs and Pharmaceuticals employment.
• South Bend/Mishawaka MSA – The area is number 14 on the list of Research, Testing, and Medical Laboratories employment concentration in medium MSAs.
• Michigan City/La Porte MSA – In the Medical Devices and Equipment subsector, the area ranks 12th in employment concentration.
• Muncie MSA – Muncie moved up a spot from the 2008 report and is now ranked third in the small MSA Research, Testing, and Medical Laboratories listing.
• Columbus MSA –  Adding a new Indiana city to the list, Columbus ranked 13th in the small MSA Drugs and Pharmaceuticals category.

A notable omission from the list of leading regions is Indiana's most concentrated life sciences region -- the "Orthopedics Capital of the World", Warsaw, Indiana.   When compared with the larger MSAs analyzed nationally in this report, the Warsaw Micropolitan Area (population 12,500) would rank as the 15th largest regional employer in medical devices and equipment in the U.S. with a total workforce of 5,979 in that category.  The omission arises from research methodology, since the BIO/Battelle report only analyzes data for the top 361 MSA, which does not include Warsaw.

"BIO and Battelle, through this report, have provided consistent and comparable data measuring the impact and growth of Indiana's and the nation's bioscience sector over the past several years," said Kristen Jones, president and CEO of the Indiana Health Industry Forum.  "Their ability to measure and track our growth provides data that demonstrates Indiana's role as a premier location to start and grow a life sciences or medical device company."

The report shows that U.S. employment in the biosciences is growing and reached 1.42 million in 2008 (the year used for the data in the report), up from 1.3 million in 2006, and growing by 1.4 percent while total private sector employment declined by 0.7 percent.   More than 8 million jobs are driven by the biosciences sector, for an employment multiplier effect of 5.8 jobs per 1 bioscience job.

The full Report is available at www.bio.org/battelle2010.

About BioCrossroads

BioCrossroads (www.biocrossroads.com) is Indiana's initiative to grow, advance and invest in the life sciences, a public-private collaboration that supports the region's research and corporate strengths while encouraging new business development.   BioCrossroads provides money and support to life sciences businesses, launches new life sciences enterprises (Indiana Health Information Exchange, Fairbanks Institute for Healthy Communities, BioCrossroadsLINX, and Datalys Center) expands collaboration and partnerships among Indiana's life science institutions, promotes science education and markets Indiana's life sciences industry. 

*Data for 361 U.S. MSAs with bioscience activity were tabulated.  Overall rankings are for total bioscience employment within an MSA.  The employment concentration rankings are tabulated based on the percentage of bioscience jobs compared to all jobs in an MSA. University and research institution bioscience jobs are not included in this analysis.

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David Johnson

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SOURCE BioCrossroads