Utah's life sciences industry alive, growing, driving state's economy

Brice Wallace 

Utah’s life sciences industry is alive.

A new study shows that the industry has grown significantly the past few years in terms of the number of jobs, the economic impact to the state and several other metrics.

The study by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah indicates that Utah last year had 1,634 companies focused on research, testing and medical laboratories; medical devices and diagnostics; biosciences-related distribution; and therapeutics and pharmaceuticals. That’s up from 1,000 in the institute’s most recent study, in 2018.

The industry also accounted for 182,383 direct and indirect jobs, up from about 130,000 in 2018, and contributed GDP of $21.6 billion, up from $13 billion in 2018.

Over a longer period, from 2012 to 2022, the number of life sciences jobs in Utah grew by an average of 5.1 percent, compared with 3.5 percent in other states and 3.4 percent in other Utah industries. That put Utah’s 10-year average job growth in the industry at No. 3 out of the 20 states with the largest life sciences employment.

“Clearly, as one of the top three fastest-growing life sciences hubs from 2012 to 2022, our industry has moved into a new phase of maturity, evidenced by the robust pace of our startup companies looking to make a move here, job creation and the increase we’ve seen in our BioUtah membership,” Andrea Kendell, outgoing BioUtah chair, said at the recent Utah Life Sciences Summit in Salt Lake City. “The phrase ‘flyover state’ should be banned from our lexicon, once and for all.”

“I’m blown away by what’s happening in the life sciences industry here in the state of Utah,” Gov. Spencer Cox told the summit crowd. Cox noted that the number of life sciences jobs per capita puts Utah behind only Massachusetts and New Jersey.

“Just ridiculous numbers for the 30th-largest state in the nation, to be competing against states like that,” the governor said.

The Gardner Institute report pegged the number of Utah direct jobs in the industry at 54,959, with 127,424 jobs supported in other industries in 2022. Companies contributed about $8 billion in GDP, part of a total economic impact of $21.6 billion.

Life sciences workers last year earned an average of $96,000, or 47.6 percent higher than the $65,000 average of other industries in the state. “So, not only does life sciences employ a lot of workers, it also has high wages,” Andrea Brandley, senior education analyst at the institute, said during a breakout session of the summit.

Utah’s life sciences industry supported $14.6 billion in earnings in 2022 from direct, indirect and induced economic impacts, according to the study, available at https://gardner.utah.edu/.

Brandley noted that life sciences has a presence in 21 of Utah’s 29 counties and features “quite diverse” employment, with a larger share of ethnicities than other industries. The study also indicates that a similar share of women work in life sciences compared to other industries.

All of those economic figures resulted in net revenues of $542.1 million in 2022 from tax revenues that life sciences companies and workers paid directly or generated indirectly in Utah, minus the additional demand for state, county, municipal and school district expenditures related to the life sciences industry.

The industry also saw significant federal funding related to life sciences. The National Institutes of Health provided $279.2 million in statewide funding in fiscal year 2022, primarily for life sciences research at Utah’s two main research institutions. The University of Utah received 87.6 percent of the total, and Utah State University received 3.4 percent. Researchers at these universities were awarded 824 life sciences patents and launched 35 life sciences startups from 2018 to 2022.

Cox told the summit audience to “pay close attention” as the state heads into the next general legislative session at the start of 2024.

“What you will hear and what you will see,” he said, “is an increased focus by my administration specifically on the life sciences, on workforce development, making sure that we have the talent for the jobs of today and the jobs that you’re bringing, the jobs of the future.”