Report: North Bay has potential for life sciences success
The Life Sciences industry is among the fastest growing in the region, according to the North Bay Life Sciences Alliance annual report.
It identified 94 businesses in Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties involved in global life science markets. But there may be as many as 470 businesses across 20 different life science sub-industries with headquarters or branch offices in the North Bay, the report said.
There were 10,000 employed in life science jobs in the four counties as of mid-2015, the latest data in the April 30 document. That's up by 100 jobs in life sciences, working out to generate more than $48 million in new-business income.
The multiplier effect of those 10,000 workers is estimated a $4.8 billion, or about 7.3 percent of the $65 billion regional economy. Since 2010, the 30 percent expansion rate of life science workers makes this category among the fastest growing industries in these four counties.
Top industry employers in the region include BioMarin, Medtronic, The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Ultragenyx, Genentech, Raptor Pharmaceuticals and Trivascular Technologies and Steris. Last year, Trivascular merged with Endologix and Steris with Synergy Health.
Life science industries include biomaterials and bioprocesses, medical devices and therapeutics, agricultural biotechnology, animal health and nutrition, and nutraceuticals.The alliance was started in 2012 to monitor trends in employment, financing, commercial space and government support for life sciences businesses in the four counties.
