Biotech Regions Glance

By The Associated Press | June 20, 2005

A new study ranks the 11 largest U.S. clusters in the life sciences -- the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, medical-device makers and related R&D operations. Scores were based on about 70 factors, from job growth and revenues to new drugs and patents.

Boston, long the field's leader, received a score of 100 as the top cluster:

Rank Region Score
1 Boston 100
2 San Francisco 98.4
3 Philadelphia/South Jersey 97.1
4 New York/North Jersey 94.6
5 Raleigh-Durham 91.1
6 San Diego 90.7
7 Los Angeles 87
8 Minneapolis 77.9
9 Chicago 75.9
10 Seattle 70.9
11 Dallas 55.2
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Source: The Milken Institute.

The entire article can be found here: article (http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/20/study_some_biotech_regions_gain_on_leaders/)

With the two biotech parks under-construction at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Hospital, and with Genome Row in suburban Maryland, I have to admit I expected Baltimore/DC to be somewhere on that list.

3 California cities on the list not bat at all, one from Texas one from NY and none from Florida, the four largest states in the union

With the two biotech parks under-construction at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Hospital, and with Genome Row in suburban Maryland, I have to admit I expected Baltimore/DC to be somewhere on that list.

I agree. And it wasn't too long ago someone posted the 2004 Brookings Institute about the top biotech cities. Needless to say, Boston was first followed by Washingon/Baltimore and SF.

With the two biotech parks under-construction at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Hospital, and with Genome Row in suburban Maryland, I have to admit I expected Baltimore/DC to be somewhere on that list.

The Johns Hopkins Biotech park is a super exciting project. For those who don't know, they are taking 80 acres of blighted housing directly north of thier hospital and completely re-doing it. 22 acres of it will be the actual biotech park, while the other 60 acres will be a mix of retail and new and renovated housing. The city has begun the work of repossessing the house and clearing the land. Here are a few pictures.

Look at the massive scale of the project. The hospital in the top right.
http://img123.echo.cx/img123/4738/1281persaerialafter2pa.jpg

Check out how many blocks this project will encompass
http://img123.echo.cx/img123/1712/januarymasterplan6zf.jpg

More info
http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/news/biotech/ebbiotech.html

The University of Maryland Biopark, on the other side of town, though smaller in scale actually has just as big a residential aspect surrounding it. The city is basicly turning over the entire neighborhood of Poppleton, which surrounds the park, over to a developer who plans on putting upscale housing, retail, and a movie theatre there.

Here is a picture of the park which is already under construction
http://img267.echo.cx/img267/2966/imgrendering8zg.jpg

I also doubt the contention that Boston was leading since the 1980's. The industry leading Genentech all but spawned the biotech revolution in the late seventies and has led ever since. By far the largest and most influential biotech companies in the world are in the Bay area, not Boston or DC because the majority of biotech therapies are coming from bay area companies.

If you take out medical device manufacturers and drug making, the list would shift a lot and some cities could concievably drop out all together. Pacemakers, bed pans, and pharma should not be grouped with gene therapy and cloning since biotech is a subsector of, not synonymous with the catch-all category of life science.

Boston probably is the leader, the amount of biotech space and activity in Boston and Cambridge is huge, and there are leading companies there such as Genzyme and Biogen-Idec. The state legislature just passed a bill for stem cell research. Of course there are other major clusters, and which is the biggest is open to interpretation.

One of many new biotech building projects, 18 stories, 300 feet.

http://www.centerforlifescience.com/

Yay for Philly/Jersey!

With the two biotech parks under-construction at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Hospital, and with Genome Row in suburban Maryland, I have to admit I expected Baltimore/DC to be somewhere on that list.

i was expecting some place in maryland to be on that list as well. i was also hoping wilmington would make that list.

I don't get how Indy is not on this list. All you hear about here locally is "biotech this biotech that." They have a campaign entitled, "BioCrossroads." There is Eli Lilly, Guidant, and the entire Clarian Medical System of Methodist, IU, and Riley hospitals. Plus IU Medical School, DOW Chemical, Roche Diagnostics, etc...

ah well, obviously Indy has some work to do !

Boston probably is the leader, the amount of biotech space and activity in Boston and Cambridge is huge, and there are leading companies there such as Genzyme and Biogen-Idec. The state legislature just passed a bill for stem cell research. Of course there are other major clusters, and which is the biggest is open to interpretation.

One of many new biotech building projects, 18 stories, 300 feet.

http://www.centerforlifescience.com/


SF has way more. Trust me. Genentech is far more important than any Boston based biotech company. It's the most important biotech company in the world now. And CA is the first state to pass a bill for stem cell research. This center is based in SF. That's why this study is lame. It says it ranks biotech regions but it uses both the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. By stating that both are used, they are contradicting themselves. If they want to do a study on biotech, why not study biotech alone? If they want to do one on pharma, why not study pharma?

cwilson: Eli Lilly and Roche are pharmaceutical companies not biotech ones. Dow chemical isn't either.

Lilly has a whole "branch" if you will devoted to life sciences. Dow isn't "dow chemical," rather the "dow agri-science" division is based here. Roche is diagnostic.

I don't quite understand the whole biotech thing. People have speculated for years that it would be the next big thing like the dot-com era.

Personally I see two types of companies being the true big things. Financial services, and insurance companies. Yes I know they are boring compared to finding cures to diseases, but I am sure both provide much more white collar jobs than biotech could ever hope.

Lilly has a whole "branch" if you will devoted to life sciences. Dow isn't "dow chemical," rather the "dow agri-science" division is based here. Roche is diagnostic.


Yeah and diagnostics isn't biotech insomuch as its almost all clinical. Life Science includes biotech, pharmaceuticals, medicine, and many other fields unrelated to biotech. Agri-Science is a very broad term which includes everything from fertilizer to biotech. Just because you have agri-science doens't mean it's biotech.