Indiana maintains position as a national leader in bioscience jobs according to new Battelle/BIO report

Several Hoosier cities listed as top sites for bioscience employment

Indianapolis, June 25, 2008 – Indiana continues its position as one of the leading life sciences regions, according to a new Battelle/Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) report released at last week’s BIO International Conference in San Diego. The report “Technology, Talent and Capital: State Bioscience Initiatives 2008” identifies Indiana as one of only three states (California and North Carolina, plus Puerto Rico) to have specialized bioscience employment in three of four niche subsectors – Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices and Equipment, and Agricultural Feedstock and Chemicals. No states have a specialization in all four areas, which also includes Research, Testing and Medical laboratories.

As a whole, Indiana employs 6.1 percent of the nation’s Drugs and Pharmaceuticals workers. And, the state was one of only four states that experienced gains of more than 1,000 employees within the Medical Devices and Equipment subsector since 2004. In addition, over the past six years, funding from the National Institutes of Health grew at 21 percent, which is almost twice the national rate.

“Indiana’s life sciences industry continues to make its mark on a national stage. Cities from Bloomington to Muncie to Michigan City are highlighted, showing geographic and industry diversity across the state,” said David Johnson, BioCrossroads President and CEO. “BioCrossroads will continue its mission serving as a strategic catalyst to accelerate the success of our life sciences community. This report demonstrates we’re making progress.”

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 ranked eighth in the Agricultural Feedstock and Chemicals subsector and sixteenth in the Medical Devices and Equipment category, making it one of only fourteen cities in the U.S. to have a specialization in three of the four subsectors that Battelle categorized.

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Other markets within the state highlighted in the top rankings were:

• Lafayette MSA (metropolitan statistical area) – ranked 24th in the overall largest employment levels, up 11 points over the 2004 numbers, in the Agricultural Feedstock and Chemicals subsector. It ranked seventh in employment concentration within the small MSA list. In the Drugs and Pharmaceuticals category, Lafayette ranks ninth.
• Bloomington – Bloomington increased its position in both of the categories for which it is nationally ranked. In the Medical Devices and Equipment category, the city led as the number one small MSA, up from second in 2004, and was ranked 31st in the overall listing. It also climbed seven positions from seventeenth in 2004 to tenth in 2006 in Drugs and Pharmaceuticals employment.
• Evansville – Evansville ranked sixth in the medium MSAs in the Drugs and Pharmaceuticals employment listing, rising two positions from the 2004 data.
• South Bend/Mishawaka – The area is number ten on the list of Research, Testing, and Medical Laboratories employment concentration in medium MSAs.
• Michigan City/La Porte – In the Medical Devices and Equipment subsector, the area ranks twelfth in employment concentration.
• Muncie – The city ranks fourth in the small MSA Research, Testing, and Medical Laboratories listing.The report shows that U.S. employment in the biosciences is growing and reached 1.3 million in 2006 (the latest year for data), up from 1.2 million in 2004, and outpacing the overall employment growth in the private sector by 2.6 percent. More than 7.5 million jobs are impacted 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/local/battelle2008/.

*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.

About BioCrossroads
BioCrossroads (www.biocrossroads.com) is Indiana’s initiative to grow 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 businesses (Indiana Health Information Exchange, Monarch LifeSciences, 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.