PROVIDENCE – A $45 million investment to jump-start the Ocean State’s position in the booming life sciences industry was left intact when the House Finance Committee approved Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s proposed $14 billion fiscal 2024 budget on June 2.
Cities such as Boston and San Francisco currently dominate the rapidly growing life sciences sector, which not only offers high-paying biotechnology jobs but also holds the promise of generating discoveries that may change the course of history. But the sector depends on a constant flow of new talent and ready infrastructure.
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Rhode Island has a small but growing toehold in the life sciences market, according to a new report issued Tuesday by CBRE Group Inc., a global leader in commercial real estate services and investment. That share could grow with the $45 million slated for a new Rhode Island Life Science Hub.
The Providence metropolitan region saw a modest 6% growth in the number of biological and biomedical degrees issued between 2016 and 2021, according to CBRE’s report titled “U.S. Life Sciences Research Talent 2023.”
The Ocean State’s growth in the rate of degrees earned by graduates – measured against 26 national markets – was greater than in Hartford, Conn., and Seattle. But Providence lagged far behind the explosive 47% growth found in California’s Riverside/San Bernardino region and the 91% growth seen in the top-ranked Phoenix metro area.
Nationwide, the number of college graduates earning biological and biomedical sciences degrees increased by 4.8% year over year in 2021 to 171,520. Some metro areas have emerged as hot houses for producing graduates in specialized fields, according to the CBRE report. Washington, D.C., has become a center for biotechnology grads, and Sacramento for genetics research.
Greater Boston – where Kendall Square has been deemed the “most innovative square mile on the planet” – topped the market for its concentration of research talent.
On CBRE’s rankings of Emerging Life Science markets, Providence did not make the list.
Could the state’s pending $45 million investment change that?
The Rhode Island Life Sciences Hub will be empowered to “facilitate the development of medical advances and scientific breakthroughs” by funding life sciences companies with grants, loans and other incentives. It is enthusiastically championed by House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, D-Warwick, and McKee.
The idea for the life sciences hub first gained traction in October with the release of a report funded by the Rhode Island Foundation that determined while the Ocean State has the capacity and opportunity to create a bioscience sector, it lacks the necessary infrastructure.
The proposed public-private hub has been supported by Brown University, the University of Rhode Island and Lifespan Corp., along with several other health care companies.
CBRE’s Emerging Markets list was determined by the amount of grants issued by the National Institutes of Health. Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; and Tampa, Fla., topped those rankings.
Employment in life sciences is among the fastest growing in the nation, according to CBRE. Demand for freshly minted researchers is at an all-time high. Last year, the number of life sciences professionals nationwide grew by 3.1% to a record 545,000, compared with a 2.2% increase for all U.S. occupations.
Life sciences researchers tend to be younger, slightly more diverse and have higher salaries and wage growth than the overall national workforce, according to CBRE data. The average salary for U.S. life sciences researchers increased by 14.5% between 2018 and 2021, compared with 10.2% across all private industry employees in that same time frame.
Providence’s affordable housing crisis and its relatively high cost of living may pose a barrier for expanding the region’s share of the market, however.
Though it is cheaper to live in Rhode Island’s capital city than the current biotech capitals of Boston, San Francisco and Washington D.C., the cost of living in Providence at $57,962 is more expensive compared with its potential life sciences rivals of Portland, Ore., at $56,538; Philadelphia at $56,355; Chicago at $55,118; Austin, Texas, at $51,821; Atlanta at $48,030; and Houston at $47,794, according to CBRE data.
Sam Wood is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Wood@PBN.com.
