Salt Lake City/Murray second on list for pharma manufacturing
The Salt Lake City/Murray metro area is the No. 2 destination in the U.S. for pharmaceutical manufacturing, according to a new report.
Global Location Strategies, a site selection and incentive negotiation firm for manufacturing and industrial companies, said its rankings highlight metro areas “offering the strongest combination of quality factors critical to therapeutic biologics manufacturing and competitive operating costs — aligning with the priorities of a company seeking to establish a large-scale, reliable commercial manufacturing site for a new therapeutic biologic.”
Salt Lake City/Murray ranks only behind the Raleigh and Cary area of North Carolina. It is ahead of Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and metro areas that contain Philadelphia; Indianapolis; Madison, Wisconsin; Houston; Dallas; Phoenix and Boston.
Salt Lake City/Murray’s high ranking is because of its competitive operating costs, particularly lower labor expenses, which help offset somewhat lower-quality scores relative to other top-ranked metros, the report states.
“The region benefits from a strong biotechnology R&D base, robust clinical trial activity, and high forecasted growth in the biopharma industry, supported by substantial industry-sponsored research that underscores active university-industry collaboration. While the metro has a smaller concentration of top-tier research universities compared with major biopharma markets, the University of Utah serves as a powerful anchor — consistently ranking among the top U.S. public universities for patents issued and licensing revenue,” the report says.
The report compliments the local workforce as another key strength, with depth across scientific research and development, engineering, quality assurance and control, and process optimization roles, supported by a strong talent pipeline.
The metro “combines affordability, workforce quality and strong R&D-to-commercialization linkages, making it an increasingly attractive location for biologics and biopharmaceutical manufacturing investment.”
The report says Salt Lake City/Murray is the least costly among the top 10 locations.
The study evaluated all 387 U.S. metropolitan areas using a two-step process. The first step identified metros with a sufficient biopharma manufacturing labor base to support a new facility projected to create 350 jobs, based on a workforce at least five times larger than the project’s projected job creation.
That narrowed the field to 33 metro areas. The second step involved benchmarking and focused on requirements of a biological product manufacturing project.
Within the group of 33, some metros fell away because of being less likely to advance to the shortlist for the specific project profile. If additional incentives become available or project parameters change, these locations could warrant further evaluation in subsequent stages, the report says.
Among several metro areas that may still be well-suited for smaller-scale or specialized projects is Ogden. The report said it “offers similar logistics advantages at even lower operating costs, supported by a diverse manufacturing and aerospace base. Its affordability and proximity to Salt Lake City’s infrastructure make it highly competitive for large-scale or cost-sensitive manufacturing projects.”