NOVATO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The North Bay Life Science Alliance (NBLSA) today released its annual assessment of trends and developments for the life-sciences industry in Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties, noting that the regional growth continues to be a major factor as the Bay Area becomes a global hub of the sector.
The report, prepared by Dr. Robert Eyler, chief economist of the Marin Economic Forum, identifies 90 businesses, accounting for 10,000 jobs, involved in global life-science markets within the NBLSA counties, with 470 headquartered and branch businesses stretching across different life-science sectors in the North Bay.
Employing the generally-accepted “multiplier effect” that estimates the economic impact of each new job in an industry segment on the entire economy, the 10,000 workers generate $4.8 billion of a $65 billion regional economy (approximately 7.3 percent).
“The emergence of the life sciences industry in the region over the past decade,” said Eyler, “is the most important economic development throughout the NBLSA region. It impacts commercial and residential real estate, employment, local economies, and education. Because the companies, by and large, infill existing office space and are in ‘clean industries,’ their impact on the environment is beneficial.”
The report points out that the life-science industry is an umbrella over a large number of sectors as well as a mix of multinational corporations and their branch offices and facilities. Additionally, the field encourages the existence of lone biology researchers attempting to find the next significant cure.
“What is particularly important is the breadth of the field,” said Christopher L. Stewart, NBLSA chairman. “While it includes global leaders such as BioMarin, headquartered in San Rafael, and Ultragenyx, headquartered in Novato, there are also dozens of startups and smaller companies who locate in our counties because of the availability of resources and talent.”
Stewart also noted that one of the major reasons for the recovery of housing prices and values in the North Bay and Marin specifically is the growth of life science jobs in Novato and San Rafael. Over the last fifteen months more than 650 new life science jobs have been created in the two cities and they have help grow the local economies by more than $200 million annually.
According to Eyler, not only are the jobs growth great for the regional economy, but also who the jobs tend to attract. “Life science employment is characterized by highly-educated workers who hold at least a bachelor's degree,” he said. Wages in life-science businesses are generally higher than average wages, ranging from $18/hour for technicians to six-figure salaries for medical researchers, business management and sales.
The full report can be found at https://nblsa.com/annual- report-2016/.
About NBLSA
The North Bay Life Science Alliance (NBLSA) brings life-science professionals, educators and public leaders together to attract, to retain and to expand life-science business in the California counties of Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma. Working primarily with a grant from the City of Novato and in-kind support from the Buck Institute, the NBLSA promotes the region’s many advantages to businesses that are a focus of economic development for all four counties. NBLSA is now the lead agency on public policy and advocacy for life science to continue its growth north and east of the San Francisco Bay Area.