Utah biotechs helping the world - and doing just fine themselves
Utah life sciences companies are helping the world emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the industry itself in Utah remains well-positioned to do the same.
Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah, recently cited statistics showing that Utah’s industry is thriving and is poised for continued growth. At least 50 Utah companies acted to respond to the pandemic, and that innovation has expanded the state’s life sciences footprint on a national and global scale, he said.
“Looking to the future today and being intentional is especially important as we see light at the end of the COVID tunnel — a light that is being brought to us by the diagnostics, treatments and vaccines produced by the life sciences industry,” he said to lead off the recent Entrepreneur & Investor Life Science Summit, presented by BioUtah, BioHive and the University of Utah’s PIVOT Center.
Utah’s life sciences industry includes more than 1,100 companies employing more than 130,000 people. It added about 5,000 jobs during the past year, boosting its status of having the No. 1 job growth in the nation since 2012.
A study last June indicated that the Salt Lake City metro area was No. 2 in the nation for employment concentration in medical device manufacturing and No. 9 in total medical device jobs. And Utah was one of only four states with concentrations in three subspecialties: pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and research and testing. “That puts us in pretty heady company with states like New Jersey, California and Massachusetts,” Cullimore said.
What’s more, the Milken Institute’s list of best-performing cities for 2021 includes five Utah municipalities, all in the top 10: Provo-Orem, Salt Lake City, Ogden-Clearfield, Logan and St. George. Utah universities are highly ranked for technology transfer and for academic life science research and development growth. Salt Lake City is pushing a “Tech Lake City” initiative that features accommodating more life sciences companies, and the upcoming development at the Point of the Mountain “will cater significantly to life sciences needs,” Cullimore said.
Because the event focused on investing, Cullimore added that in 2020, Utah was sixth-ranked among states for funds raised per capita. “It shows we are punching well above our weight,” he said. Utah life sciences companies have raised about $750 million during the past 18 months, although Cullimore said the figure likely is higher than that.
“We have a great story to tell, and we are united in our vision to make Utah an innovation hub, bar none,” he said.
To help tell that story, BioHive was launched in November to brand the industry as a cohesive community and raise its profile nationally and globally. With help from various partners in the public and private sectors, BioHive aims “to make Utah known on the national map as a hotspot of innovation,” according to Katelin Roberts, BioHive’s interim executive director.
“They (BioUtah) are the trade organization and we are the megaphone, the cheerleaders, the resource connectors, and ideally we want to bring people together so we can share our enthusiasm for Utah,” Roberts said.
Keith Marmer, chief innovation and economic engagement officer at the University of Utah, said growth in the state’s life sciences ecosystem is evident in the influx of talent to the state.
“The number of people who have moved to Utah to be part of our ecosystem or been a part of helping to grow our ecosystem continues to mushroom, and it’s exciting to see all of the folks engaging and helping to grow the companies here in Utah,” he said.
Marmer said “there’s so much going on” in Utah’s life sciences industry. “It’s exciting to see our ecosystem continuing to grow,” he said, “even during this past year, with the challenges we’ve had with the pandemic.”