Industry Impact

The U.S. bioscience industry remains a cornerstone of national strength – driving innovation, creating high-value jobs, and powering growth across every region of the country. Spanning fields from pharmaceuticals and medical devices to agricultural biotechnology and research and testing, this dynamic sector not only delivers life-saving innovations but also fuels long-term economic vitality and industrial diversification.

BIO and Korn Ferry, a leading global consulting firm, have collaborated to develop a new survey assessing

diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the biotechnology industry. Korn Ferry’s DEI Maturity model was used to

define and organize survey topic areas. The maturity model addresses five key dimensions of DEI maturity with

a focus on both behavioral and structural aspects of each dimension. Behavioral dimensions such as skill sets

and mindsets and structural aspects such as practices and policies provide a model to assess company efforts.

U.S. ‘Industrial Bioeconomy’ Adds $210.4B and 643,992 Jobs, Says Report; Georgia in Top 10

Biomanufacturing advocates released a new report that provides a closer look at the employment, wages, and economic activity driven by the U.S. industrial bioeconomy. Authored by TEConomy Partners, the report, “The Economic Impact of the U.S. Industrial Bioeconomy,” illuminates an increasingly important segment of the U.S. economy associated with biomanufacturing and bioproducts (those other than food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals).

Included in the report are state and federal figures for economic activity tied to the transformation of renewable biomass into fertilizers, bioplastics, biofuels, bio-lubricants, and a host of other industrial bioproducts, as well as the research and development of microbes, enzymes, biocatalysts, and other technologies used in modern biomanufacturing. 

The biopharmaceutical sector has a positive impact in the U.S. by providing jobs, economic output & clinical trial data. Beyond these traditional indicators, however, its full economic footprint can be measured in part by its impact on the vendors, large and small, that provide services or supplies to America’s biopharmaceutical research companies.

To provide insight into the breadth and depth of the industry’s direct impact, We Work For Health gathered 2022 vendor and supplier expenditure data from 15 biopharmaceutical companies in 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Georgia is one of the nation’s leading global health and life science centers, with a critical mass of bioscience organizations and companies leading innovations for the industry.

• Thriving life sciences industry segments, led by research & development
• Concentration of life sciences talent with more than 26,000 professionals
• World-class colleges and universities supplying a robust pipeline of talent and research capabilities
• Unparalleled support for new life science operations including a pro business climate
• World-class transportation infrastructure

Every two years, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) publishes a biennial BIO Economic Development Best Practices Report that catalogs state and regional economic development initiatives. The best practice examples contained within this report highlight the critical facets that foster high-performing industry and the long-term success it has maintained.

The report reaffirms that successful industry development initiatives are built upon the following four key building blocks for company creation and expansion:

Access to angel and venture capital

Workforce development initiatives

Technology Transfer Systems

State of the Art facilities

Investments in these 4 areas yield results. The bioscience industry’s total economic impact on the U.S. economy, as measured by overall output, totaled $2 trillion in 2016. This impact is generated by the direct output of the bioscience industry combined with the indirect (supply chain) and induced (employee spending) impacts.

The life sciences industry is fueling business growth and real estate demand around the world, and 2024 will be no exception. Advances in biotechnology, medical devices and consumer products are focused on unmet medical needs and advances in sustainable materials. While the past year has been hard on the small-cap biotech industry, life sciences stock indices such as XBI and NBI showed noticeable improvement in late 2023 in line with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The 2024 Feeding the Economy report clearly demonstrates that America’s food and agriculture sector is a thriving, integral component of the U.S. economy with economic output growing by more than a trillion dollars since the 2023 report. These industries directly support nearly 24 million jobs (over 15% of U.S. employment) and are responsible for more than $9.6 trillion of the country’s economic activity – that’s 20% of total U.S. output.

New approaches are required at almost every level of the economy. Biotechnology has the potential to be a transformative asset in this struggle, offering vital contributions to near-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and revolutionary tools to avert catastrophic climate change in the longer term. New biotech tools, including gene

editing and synthetic biology, can be transformative climate solutions in key emerging industry sectors. Policies supporting the development and deployment of biotech climate solutions should be part of any government effort to address climate change.

Biotechnology can achieve at least 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent mitigation annually by 2030, using existing technologies, and emerging biotechnologies could have transformative GHG benefits in a range of industrial sectors. Biotechnology can deliver vital climate solutions in four key areas:

• Producing sustainable biomass feedstock
• Empowering sustainable production
• Developing lower carbon products
• Enhancing carbon sequestration

The third annual report that examines diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the biotechnology industry launched today at the 2022 BIO International Convention. The report, “Measuring Diversity in the Biotech Industry: Tracking Progress in Small and Large Companies”, investigates the state of DEI in the biotechnology industry and includes representation data, current DEI approaches and initiatives, and data comparisons to previous reports.