Is Biotech Really Growing Geographically?

That is the $64,000 question for the day. Here is what a recent article has to say on this topic.

Moreover, national competition for biotech businesses and research dollars is fierce, with more than three dozen states in the hunt. While the biotech industry has grown, it has not expanded much beyond the areas where it has always flourished -- Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Raleigh-Durham, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area.

The chances of creating more centers are slim, said Joseph Cortright, an economist in Portland, Ore., who co-wrote a 2002 Brookings Institution report on the state of the biotech industry.

"I think people in economic development have this naïve assumption that biotech is like Krispy Kreme donuts," Cortright said. "That it starts in one part of the country and soon will be available everywhere, and that's just not the case."

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