New York’s Life Sciences Industry Thrives Despite Pandemic
New York’s long-anticipated emergence as a global hub of commercial life sciences has finally gained traction, thanks to strategic investment by the public and private sector over the past several years.
A new report from the Partnership Fund for New York City shows that despite the pandemic, 2020 was a milestone year for life sciences investment in New York state, with sector jobs and private investment reaching record highs.
Efforts to Grow Life Sciences are Taking Root
In 2016, the Partnership Fund identified commercial life sciences as a key growth industry in New York. That year, the state and city committed $1.2 billion to support the development of the industry, providing a catalyst for developing wet lab space for early- and growth-stage companies and accelerator and job training programs.
Since then, the results have been dramatic in New York City, where life science jobs increased at a 3.6% annual rate over the past five years — while citywide employment declined slightly over the same period. The average annual earnings for a life sciences employee in the city also increased 67% from $85,000 in 2010 to $142,000 in 2020. Today, the industry accounts for 81,000 jobs statewide.
Last year, venture capital investment in life sciences companies in New York state reached $2.3 billion, nearly triple 2019 investment levels. When matched against public investment, New York life science companies received 73 cents of VC funding for every dollar of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding received, up substantially from 13 cents in 2016.
Over the past decade, the Partnership Fund has committed over $50 million to support the growth of commercial life sciences and will continue its efforts to close the investment gap. One of our early life science investments into Intra-Cellular Therapies (NASDAQ:ITCI) remains a poster child for New York’s potential — Nobel Prize-winning research spun out of Rockefeller University into a company that has created approximately 380 jobs and now has a market capitalization of $2.5 billion. The company is developing groundbreaking therapeutics for neuropsychiatric and neurological diseases.
Through our partnership with SOSV’s IndieBio Accelerator and New York state, we are investing in the next generation of life science companies dedicated to improving human and planetary health via biology and technology.
As we look toward our economic recovery from the pandemic, the life sciences sector will be a critical contributor to New York’s future, with good-paying jobs and strong investment activity that will soon match the impact of our local biomedical research institutions.
Read the full 2021 report here.
