North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park – A Thriving Life Sciences Hub with Strong NIH Funding and Continued Growth Potential
By Alex Keown
May 30, 2023
First established in 1959, North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park is home to hundreds of life sciences companies and has become one of the fastest growing life sciences hubs in the country.
The latest Life Sciences Outlook report from CBRE, a global leader in commercial real estate services and investment, shows RTP continues to showcase its strengths, including significant funding from the National Institutes of Health. Over the past four years, RTP has been among the fastest-growing markets for funding from the NIH, the report shows. In 2022, the NIH issued more than $2 billion in grants and contracts to companies, universities and organizations in the Tar Heel State. Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received the lion’s share of the federal funding, followed by Research Triangle Institute and N.C. State University. Annual NIH funding has increased by 62% over the past 10 years. The top life sciences lab/R&D markets in the U.S. continue to receive the most NIH funding, the CBRE report shows.
In addition to NIH funding, the CBRE report focuses on multiple measuring points assessing the strengths of the region. Other points include Venture Capital funding, Lab Space and Jobs. The data shows RTP remains among the top 10 of life sciences clusters in the United States, echoing Genetic Engineering News’ most recent annual top 10 biopharma clusters report that ranked RTP in the 9th position.
The number of life sciences employees who call RTP home has steadily grown over the past two decades. In 2002 there were a little more than 20,000 life sciences employees in the region. Today, that number has nearly doubled to just under 40,000 people.
In all, North Carolina is home to 810 life sciences companies that employ 75,000 people. Life science employment in North Carolina has grown by 13% since 2018. That is a significant increase over the 3% growth in other private sectors. From 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, an additional 6,100 jobs were announced.
Nationally, U.S. life sciences employment hit a record 2.1 million jobs at the start of 2023, according to CBRE. Although the pace of job growth slowed to 4.1% in January 2023 from 6.3% in January 2022, it was still higher than any annual growth rate before 2019, CBRE reported.
Like other biotech hubs, life sciences jobs in North Carolina offer significantly higher wages than other industries. NCBiosciences reports average annual wages for life sciences jobs in 2021 were $112,000. That’s almost twice the $60,000 average for the overall private sector.
In VC funding, the amount spent in RTP significantly declined during 2022 compared to 2021. According to the CBRE report, VCs spent only a little over 200 million in RTP. That was down from nearly $600 million the previous year. The waning in VC funding tracks with a downturn across the nation. CBRE reports a 34% year-over-year decline in annual VC funding last year to $21.7 billion in the U.S. The bulk of those investments was allocated to companies in the top three premier life sciences markets of Boston/Cambridge, the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego, CBRE reported.
In biomanufacturing, the region comes in behind the greater Boston area in available space. More space is being built in RTP to meet growing demand. As CBRE noted in its report, demand for lab/R&D space remains well above pre-pandemic levels.
“CBRE forecasts that total life sciences lab/R&D space may increase by more than 20% over the next two years, as a record-high amount of new construction is currently underway,” the report indicated.
According to the report, there are approximately nine million square feet of leasable lab space with more coming online in the near future. The report indicates there are currently seven new sites being developed. Four of those are new constructions, while three are conversion projects. These new sites will combine for about 688,000 square feet of space.
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Alex Keown is a freelance journalist who writes about a variety of subjects including the pharma, biotech, and life science industries. Prior to freelancing, Alex has served as a staff writer and editor for several publications.
