New York City Bioscience Industry
New York City Bioscience in New York City is a commercial industry founded upon the City’s academic medical centers. The commercialization of biotechnology (bioscience) is one of New York City's emerging industries; one that helps to attract tax revenue and academic talent, which helps to diversify the City's community and economy respectively.
Foundation
The New York City Bioscience Industry is composed of economic development agencies at the City level and State level, academic research institutions, and commercial bioscience firms throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The region is home to the largest bioscience workforce in the country, according to a recent Battelle Study, and attracts funding in the form of National Institutes of Health awards. Much of this funding is procured by 9 major academic research institutions:
- • Columbia University College of Physicians
- • Albert Einstein School of Medicine
- • Cornell Medical School – Weill
- • NYU School of Medicine
- • Mt. Sinai Medical College
- • Rockefeller University
- • SUNY Downstate Medical Center
- • Memorial-Sloan Cancer Center
- • The Hospital for Special Surgery
Building off of New York City’s academic medical institutions, the seven largest biomedical institutions in New York City joined to create the New York Academic Consortium (NYAC). NYAC receives nearly $1.9 billion in annual research funds and generates $509 million in annual gross licensing revenue.
Talent
122 Nobel Laureates have studied, taught or worked in NYC; there are 45,769 physicians in the NYC area; and there are 218 active members of the National Academy of Sciences in NY State, mostly from New York City. The NY metropolitan area produces 535 biomedical engineering graduates per year and accounts for 427,300 jobs, according to the US Department of Labor.
Commercial Sector
The agglomeration of clinical talent supports New York City’s Bioscience Industry, which contains 125 bioscience companies. Major publicly-traded biopharmaceutical companies include:
NYC’s academic institutions produce an average of 20 commercial start-up companies per year.
The New York metropolitan area (NYC, Westchester, and western Long Island) has venture capital firms investing in life science companies at all stages.
Commercial Bioscience Real Estate
Currently, New York City has 75,000 SF of commercial laboratory space between two locations:
- • Audubon Business and Technology Center
- • SUNY Downstate operates its Biotechnology Park
The City has partnered with Alexandria Real Estate Equities to develop the East River Science Park (ERSP). The first of three phases of the development will be completed by late 2009, and will bring 310,000 SF to the market. The entire ERSP development is projected to bring 1.1 million SF to the market.
The City has also set aside several hundred-thousand SF at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT) for future bioscience development. Once developed, the proposed bioscience facility, known as BioBAT will offer space for research, laboratory and bio-manufacturing uses. Phase I at BioBAT will be anchored by academic research and commercial bioscience operations, beginning with theInternational AIDS Vaccine Initiative(IAVI), which moved into 38,000 square feet in November, 2008.
NYC Bioscience History
New York City started growing its bioscience roots in 1849 when two immigrant cousins, chemist Charles Pfizer and confectioner Charles Erhart founded what would later become Pfizer, Inc. Less than ten years later, Edward Robinson Squibb founded E.R. Squibb, M.D. in 1858, and built a lab space in Brooklyn, NY dedicated to the production of consistently pure medicines. In 1887, William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers purchased the Clinton Pharmaceutical Company, a [...] manufacturing firm located in Clinton, New York forming Bristol-Myer’s. In 1978, EON Labs created a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Laurelton, Queens. In 1984, ImClone Systems was founded when an immunologist and a pathologist both living and working in New York City set out to meld New York City academia with the fledgling bioscience industry. Squibb and Bristol-Myers merged in 1989, creating Bristol-Myers Squibb. Sandoz purchased EON Labs in 2006. A private group purchased it again in 2008, and continues today as Epic Pharmaceuticals.