As pharma manufacturing investment skyrockets, new state and federal government initiatives have poured into regional biotech hubs eager for a slice of the pie.
This year alone, Pennsylvania and New York launched new programs, while Kansas City and Central Virginia won federal funding aimed at strengthening their biotech industries.
The recent investments “are great signals, especially at a time when we're tracking hundreds of billions of dollars in major CapEx [capital expenditure] from global pharma industry leaders,” said Matt Gardner, sector president for life sciences at CBRE Enterprise, a global commercial real estate services and investment firm. “It's generational. I've never seen anything quite like this.”
The government incentives are aimed at attracting biotech companies to their shores. But so far, the investments have not been substantial enough on their own to sway major relocations.
“Companies are not making decisions on where to build a new factory just on that,” said Seth Martindale, a CBRE vice chairman and member of its site selection and incentives group. Instead, companies look for broader infrastructure factors like a strong workforce, labor market and education base.
