From having the nation’s third largest biotechnology industry (Ernst & Young 2006) to offering the nation’s fifth best U.S. location for bioscience (Business and Facilities 2004), North Carolina is consistently ranked in the top-five for bioscience development.
The state also rates highly as a business and education destination as the following reports show:
2006 Silicon Valley Projections: Daring to Compete: A Region-to-Region Reality Check
Silicon Valley Leadership Group. September 2005.
- The Research Triangle area of Raleigh-Durham, N.C., ranked first or second in six of the study's eight critical performance measures. The categories were designed to measure the cost of doing business, the cost of living and the quality of life. The Triangle was best in housing affordability and had the least traffic congestion. It ranked second in unemployment rates, state tax rates (both corporate and individual) and the performance by its eighth-graders on math tests.
- The Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences Cluster: An Economic and Comparative Assessment
Milken Institute. June 2005.
- The "Greater Raleigh-Durham" metropolitan area is ranked first in the report's Current Impact Measures/Biotechnology composite index (pages 43 and 125) and second in the report's Life Sciences Human Capital composite index (page 90 and 134).
- Beyond Borders: Global Biotechnology Report 2006
Prepared by Ernst and Young. June 2006.
- The report states North Carolina ranks third nationally in the number of biotechnology companies.
Laboratories of Innovation: State Bioscience Initiatives 2006
Battelle Memorial Institute. June 2004.
The study measures an area's strength in research and development inputs, risk capital, human capital, biotech work force and current impact (an area's success in bringing ideas to the marketplace and creating companies, jobs and products). North Carolina ranks highly in such categories as academics, venture capital raised and government participation.
- Tending the Fields: State and Federal Roles In the Oversight of Genetically Modified Crops
Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. December 2004
The report looks at how regulators in 17 states are partnering with federal regulators to oversee biotech crops. The report praises North Carolina for creating a system to allow genetically-modified tobacco to be grown for commercial uses.
With the help of the state Department of Agriculture, farmers, biotech professionals and seed experts are creating voluntary standards for the growth and handling of any leaf grown for pharmaceutical purposes - standards that would exist in addition to federal requirements.
Biopharmaceutical Industry Contributions to State and U.S. Economies
Milken Institute. October 2004.
In North Carolina, the study projects that about 7,250 new direct jobs will be created by 2014, bringing to 32,040 the number of biopharmaceutical jobs in the state.
When the multiplier effect is factored in, the jobs will total 160,540. North Carolina ranks No. 5 in the number of jobs to be added, and No. 1 in the percentage growth (26 percent) of new jobs in South Atlantic states. These include: Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and District of Columbia.
This study shows the economic impact that the biopharmaceutical industry has on state and U.S. economies - more than 2.7 million jobs and $172 billion in real output in 2003 when one includes the full impact the industry has on all sectors of the economy. Tax impact analysis for North Carolina can be found on page 82.
Resurgence: Global Biotechnology: Report 2004-The Americas Perspective
Prepared by Ernst and Young. May 2004.
The report shows how U.S. biotech companies rebounded in dramatic fashion in 2003 and 2004 from a precipitous stock market decline that had left many companies facing severe cash shortages and feeling desperate about the future.
The major force driving this resurgence is biotech companies' success in moving new, first-in-class medicines through clinical trials and onto the market. Ernst and Young predicts the industry should achieve the first net income in its 30-year history in 2008.
The report also states North Carolina overtook Maryland to become the nation's number three state in the number of biotechnology companies.
America's Biotech and Life Science Clusters: San Diego's Position and Economic Contributions
Milken Institute. June 2004.
In the race to generate high-paying jobs and underwrite local prosperity, regional leaders from across the U.S. are fighting hard to lure what many believe is the economic growth industry of the 21st century - biotechnology.
According to this study, only a handful of metropolitan areas have succeeded on a scale necessary to ensure industry sustainability. At the top of that list is San Diego, followed closely by Boston and the Research Triangle area of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill. Another nine are in the running.
The rankings are based on two broad factors:
- The biotechnology innovation pipeline - infrastructure that allows a metro to capitalize on its biotech knowledge and creativity, such as the quality of its workforce and amount of research and development dollars it receives; and
- The current impact assessment - an area's success in bringing ideas to the marketplace and creating companies, jobs and products.
The Triangle area is ranked number one in human capital and biotech work force.
Annual Review and Analysis of Real Estate Trends in the Life Sciences Industry.
Spaulding and Slye Colliers, Colliers International. Alchemy. Volume 1, Summer 2004.
- This report addresses the growing need for knowledge about a very specialized life science real estate product and the national and worldwide life science real estate markets. Pages 48-51 focus specifically on the Triangle region, including a lab market snapshot and a real estate market outlook.
- Signs of Life: The Growth of Biotechnology Centers in the U.S.
by Joseph Cortright and Heike Mayer. June 2002. The Brookings Institution. -
Biotechnology is at the heart of a fast-growing sector of the U.S. economy, and as the industry expands, it has become a focal point of many local, regional, and state economic development strategies. This report provides an analysis of biotechnology activity in the 51 largest U.S. metropolitan areas and finds that the industry is heavily concentrated in nine regions including Raleigh-Durham.