Indiana Atop Overall Life Sciences Industry Rankings

Indiana is home to the Orthopedic Capital of the World,™ but what is perhaps less well known is the level of prominence Indiana has earned in the broader life sciences industry.

Indiana is one of only two states (along with Puerto Rico) that has specialized bioscience employment in four of the five subsectors. These include:

• Agricultural Feedstock & Chemicals
• Drugs & Pharmaceuticals
• Medical Devices & Equipment
• Research, Testing & Medical Laboratories

• Bioscience Distribution—a new subsector, which includes agricultural seeds, biomedical equipment and supplies, and drugs and pharmaceuticals.

Indiana’s ranking atop the life sciences industry is according to a Battelle/Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Report titled State Bioscience Industry Development 2012. It was released at the 2012 BIO International Conference in Boston, Mass. New Jersey is the only other state to share this distinction. No state is specialized in all five areas.

The four subsectors in which Indiana has an employment concentration of 20% or more of total U.S. employment are: Agricultural Feedstock & Chemicals, Drugs & Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices & Equipment and Bioscience Distribution.

As a whole, the number of bioscience jobs in Indiana has grown since 2001, increasing by 14% and outpacing the national average of 6.4%. As of 2010, nearly 60,000 individuals were employed in bioscience jobs in Indiana.

According to the report, the medical devices and equipment subsector was generally flat during the 2001 to 2010 period. The report goes on to say that this generally flat performance can be considered an achievement, since there is a strong push toward increasing productivity in medical device and equipment manufacturing, akin to other advanced manufacturing industries.

From 2007–2010, 27 states experienced some employment increases in the medical device subsector with 11 states having substantial increases, led by Tennessee, Indiana and Colorado.

For more information, we encourage you to read the Battelle report.