Other Indiana cities highly ranked in specific bioscience categories.
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, February 7, 2007 – The report, “The Biosciences in the United States: a Regional Perspective”, released last week by Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle) and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), identified the Indianapolis Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as the nation’s ninth largest in total biosciences employment.
The Indianapolis MSA is home to 24,051 bioscience jobs. For comparison, the Indianapolis MSA ranks just ahead of the San Diego, California MSA and just behind the San Jose, California MSA, and ahead of other national MSAs such as Washington, D.C., Houston, St. Louis, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

This new regional report also validates previous studies that show biosciences jobs are found throughout Indiana. In a companion report, “Growing the Nation’s Bioscience Sector: State Bioscience Initiatives 2006”, which was released last year by Battelle and BIO, Indiana was identified as one of the nation’s top four life sciences leaders as defined by number and concentration of life sciences-related jobs.

“At the state level, we knew that Indiana was one of the leaders in life sciences employment and asset diversity,” said David Johnson, President and CEO of BioCrossroads, Indiana’s life sciences initiative. “And now, at the local level, we see we aren’t just hoping to become competitive. We are standing alongside some of the nation’s most well-respected life sciences hubs. Building from strength, we must now look toward creating our ‘next-generation’ opportunities.”

The report also notes that strong regional life sciences clusters, present in Indianapolis and other areas of the state, are the result of “…effective clustering of resources including university research, a talented labor force, availability of investment capital, and strong local firms that anchor the industry result in a strong bioscience industry at the regional level.”

“This report reinforces the fact that Indiana already has an impressive amount of expertise in a strong and growing sector of the national economy,” said Dr. August (Gus) Watanabe, Chairman of the BioCrossroads Board of Directors. “It is our mission at BioCrossroads to ensure that the right kinds of resources, support and guidance are available in Indiana so we can take full advantage of all the innovation that already occurs here.”

In addition to identifying general bioscience employment, both Battelle and BIO reports examine four main subsectors within the biosciences: agricultural feedstock and chemicals; drugs and pharmaceuticals; medical devices and equipment; and research, testing and medical laboratories.

Drugs and Pharmaceuticals:
The Indianapolis MSA is ranked fourth in the nation in total employment, while the Evansville MSA ranks 38.
Medical Devices and Equipment:
Nationally, the Indianapolis and Bloomington MSAs rank seventeenth and 31, respectively, in total employment.
Agriculture Feedstock and Chemicals:
Indianapolis is ranked seventh and Lafayette is ranked nineteenth in the nation in total employment.
Research, Testing and Medical Laboratories:
Indianapolis is ranked 28 in the nation in total employment.
This latest Battelle and BIO report also provided regional rankings in these bioscience categories by concentration of employment. The concentration of employment ranking allows the study to make more “apples to apples” comparisons of MSAs, basing rankings on employment percentage.
Indiana MSAs that also ranked highly in employment concentration in at least one of the subsectors include: Bloomington, Elkhart-Goshen, Evansville, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Michigan City-LaPorte, Muncie, South Bend-Mishawaka, and Terre Haute.
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About BioCrossroads:
BioCrossroads is Indiana’s life science initiative, 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, expands collaboration and partnerships among Indiana’s life science institutions, expands science education and markets Indiana’s life sciences industry. Learn more at www.biocrossroads.com.