The modern biotechnology industry is a group of companies making different kinds of products, but all using biotechnology tools. Some of these companies start up as small research groups seeking to create a new technology or solve a new problem using biotechnology; others are large multinational corporations in traditional industries, such as those producing pharmaceuticals, that adopt the tools of biotechnology to advance their research or improve their production processes.
As a whole, this industry has been growing steadily since the late 1980s and is projected to keep growing. At present, the U.S. biotechnology industry has almost 200,000 employees and does over $40 billion in business.
North Carolina, with the third largest concentration of biotechnology companies in the U.S., is a global competitor in this industry. State and local governments are working to keep the biotechnology industry growing in North Carolina. This means more jobs here for the foreseeable future.