SLC/Murray ranked among metros with 'diverse bioscience strengths'

A technician inspects medical devices ready for packaging at Merit Medical in South Jordan.
The Salt Lake City area is recognized for having “an especially diverse set of bioscience industry
strengths” in a newly released report on the industry. Photo courtesy of Merit Medical.

Brice Wallace 

Utah continues to show strength in the biosciences, with the state having notable concentrations in medical devices and equipment; research, testing and medical labs; and pharmaceuticals.

And the Salt Lake City-Murray area is among 21 metro areas nationwide that have “an especially diverse set of bioscience industry strengths” by specializing in at least three of five industry subsectors, according to a recently released study.

Titled “The U.S. Bioscience Economy: Driving Economic Growth and Opportunity in States and Regions,” the study was compiled using a variety of statistic sources and released by TEConomy Partners LLC, trade association Bio and the Council of State Bioscience Associations.

However, the news wasn’t all good for Utah. The report noted that bioscience-related venture capital investments in Utah have shrunk in recent years, as have the number of bioscience-related patents.

The study pegged the Utah bioscience industry as having 2,067 establishments that employed 40,725 in 2023 and showing job growth of 11.3 percent since 2019. Those jobs paid an average wage of $89,404 in 2023, which was 40 percent higher than the state’s private-sector average of $63,970.

For medical devices and equipment, Utah is considered a “sizable” state, putting it in the top 10 for employment. The Salt Lake City-Murray area has 11,548 employees in that subsector, placing it No. 8 among metro areas in the U.S. Research, testing and medical labs account for 11,176 jobs in the Salt Lake City-Murray area, or No. 14 among metros nationwide.

Among the strong industry subsectors in Utah are bioscience-related distribution, with 851 establishments employing 6,589 people; research, testing and medical labs, with 725 establishments and 12,397 employees; and medical devices and equipment, with 273 establishment and 14,109 employees.

Academic research and development spending in biosciences totaled $462.4 million in 2022, with biosciences accounting for 49 percent of all R&D spending in Utah that year. That investment was led by $354.8 million in health sciences.

National Institutes of Health funding to Utah institutions reached $294.5 million in 2023. It was $235.9 million in 2019.

Venture capital investments in Utah totaled nearly $2.8 billion from 2019 to 2023, but the annual amounts vary wildly. They rose from $504 million in 2019 to $863.8 million in 2021 but slipped to $368.5 million in 2022 and $374.4 million in 2023. The leading segment from 2019-23 was health care technology systems, at more than $1 billion, followed by drug discovery at $588.8 million.

Meanwhile, the number of bioscience-related patents in Utah totaled 977 during that five-year period. The number in 2023 was 176, but it was as high as 236 in 2019. The five-year total included 708 patents for medical and surgical devices.

Nationwide in 2023, biosciences represented nearly 150,000 business establishments that employed nearly 2.3 million people, with total economic impacts of $3.2 trillion, according to the report. The industry also supported nearly 8 million additional jobs through direct and indirect effects.

“This report, and its accompanying state profiles, continues to shine a spotlight on the activities and economic benefits realized across the U.S., as the bioscience industry has an extensive economic reach and impacts every region of the country,” it said. “While this latest report finds the industry has continued to grow and advance its ecosystem, it also finds economic challenges and headwinds for the bioscience sector and its major subsectors in the form of hiring slowdowns, and even rising layoff activity.”

The industry, it noted, is innovative but also economically resilient “and has historically emerged from economic challenges to drive societal and economic progress.”

“The U.S. bioscience industry has maintained its long-term growth trend; however, this growth has slowed in the last year amidst a more cautious investment and hiring environment and accelerating layoff announcements. The resilient industry, however, continues to generate high-quality, high-wage jobs that drive significant and growing economic impacts for the nation.”

The average U.S. bioscience worker earned $132,314 last year, which is $60,000, or 83 percent, more than the nation’s private-sector average. Leading the way was research, testing and medical labs, with average pay of $151,006.

Wages and benefits of the industry totaled $882 billion last year. The industry generated state and local taxes of $132 billion and federal taxes of $216 billion.

“The U.S. bioscience industry has maintained its long-term growth trend with employment increasing by nearly 15 percent since 2019, well outpacing the nation’s overall private-sector job growth during this period that includes the global pandemic and subsequent economic recovery,” the report said.

“While growth has been robust for the biosciences over the latest four-year period overall, the slower growth experienced in the biosciences has played out at the subsector level, with four of the five seeing markedly slower growth in 2023.”