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The biotechnology and medical device industry in the state of Washington is comprised of more
than 220 privately or publicly owned companies, and twenty-two non-profit research
organizations. Note that universities, including the University of Washington,
Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, and other colleges, along
with organization such as Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center,
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Swedish Medical Center and Veterans Administration
Hospital are excluded from the following given the difficulty in separating biotechnology and
device specific employment from organization/institution total employment.
At the close of 2005, total aggregated biotechnology and medical device industry
employment in Washington exceeded 18,500 people, an increase of 5.5 percent from 2004.
In 2005, the biotechnology sector had more than 10,800 employees -- a 5.7% increase
from the prior year. And the state's medical device employment exceeded 7,600 --
a 5.0% increase from a year earlier. Using the common advanced technology multiplier (3:1)
it is estimated that these sectors combined indirectly employ more than 55,500 people in
the state of Washington.
Notable layoffs in 2005 included Cell Therapeutics which issued
layoff notices to 77 employees; Corixa (aquired by GlaxoSmithKline) which layed off
70 employees; Plexus which closed in Bothell facility and layed off 160 employees;
and Xcyte Therapies which after nine years and more than $150 million in financing,
sold off its core technology, reduced its staff from 85 to 5 and will close its
headquarters in 2006. Another larger layoff that occurred in 2004 was
Philips Medical Systems which layed off 150 employees in Bothell and consolidated its
ultrasound manufacturing work to facilities in Reedsville, PA, and Andover, MA.
Largest Biotechnology & Non-Profit Employers, In-state (1990-2005)
Biotechnology |
1990 |
1995 |
2000 |
2005 |
Amgen Corp. (Immunex) |
343 |
770 |
1,425 |
900 |
ICOS Corp. |
65 |
190 |
386 |
525 |
ZymoGenetics, Inc. |
126 |
230 |
294 |
485 |
Rosetta Inpharmatics |
-- |
-- |
175 |
319 |
Hollister-Stier |
185 |
255 |
239 |
300 |
___________
Non-Profit Research |
1990 |
1995 |
2000 |
2005 |
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center |
1,500 |
2,021 |
2,000 |
2,600 |
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance |
-- |
-- |
-- |
550 |
PATH - Program for Appropriate Technology in Health |
130 |
100 |
152 |
430 |
Seattle Biomedical Research Institute |
45 |
75 |
108 |
240 |
Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason |
65 |
80 |
125 |
185 |
Institute for Systems Biology |
-- |
-- |
150 |
177 |
Biotechnology development requires well educated and trained people, and as the state's
biotechnology and device industry matures it reqiures a more diverse employee base. It
requires people who understand biology, including microbiology, molecular biology,
virology, genetics, pathology, biochemical engineering, fermentation, informatics and more.
It needs people with Ph.D.s, Masters, Bachelors and Associate degrees.
Importantly, over the last decade, Washington's biotechnology and medical device companies,
and non-profit research organizations hired almost 1,000 new employees per year and
with improving financial markets, including the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
in the non-profit sector, this trend will continue.
The following is average entry level salary data and percentage of science related
hiring by degree level derived from the Washington Workforce Training Survey
conducted by Info.Resource in collaboration with the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical
Association (WBBA) and the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County
(Washington State Workforce Training Report, April 2006 497 kb pdf).
Average Entry Level Salary
- Salary AA Degree (n=9): $29,380
- Salary BS Degree (n=15): $43,200
Science Related Hiring by Degree (n=17)
- AA Degree: 3%
- BA/BS Degree: 41%
- MS Degree: 14%
- PhD/MD Degree: 42%
Additional information regarding salaries was provided by Applied HR Strategies. A research associate with
a BS degree and eight years of experience annual salary is $65,000. A quality control specialist with
an AA degree makes an average salary of $36,000 and with five years experience makes close to $60,000. An
entry level manufacturing associate with an AA degree is paid an average $35,000. A manufacturing manage with
a BS degree has an annual salary of nearly $59,000.
Non-profit Research Organizations
Twenty-two non-profit research organizations are included in the survey data.
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center is the largest with 2,600 employees or 56 percent of the 4,662
total non-profit employment. These non-profit organizations are fundamental to the research
and development of biotechnology and medical device industry nationally, as well as
internationally, and a significant number of biotechnology and medical device firms
in the state are founded on technologies developed at these institutions.
In addition, Washington's universities, colleges and health care institutions such as
Swedish Hospital and Medical Center, and the Veterans Administration Hospital employ a
significant number of scientists, technicians, and others in research and education not
included in the report data, but also fundamental to the industry's development.
Washington State Non-Profit Research Organizations (Employment, 2005, In-state)
Name |
Year Est. |
City |
Employ. |
Allen Institute for Brain Science |
2003 |
Seattle |
66 |
Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason |
1956 |
Seattle |
185 |
Cancer Research and Biostatistics |
1997 |
Seattle |
89 |
Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center |
1907 |
Seattle |
-- |
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center |
1972 |
Seattle |
2,600 |
Haakon Ragde Foundation for Advanced Cancer Studies |
2002 |
Seattle |
3 |
Heart Institute of Spokane |
1989 |
Spokane |
24 |
Hope Heart Institute |
1959 |
Seattle |
25 |
Institute for Chemical Genomics |
2003 |
Seattle |
12 |
Infectious Disease Research Institute |
1993 |
Seattle |
40 |
Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders |
1996 |
Seattle |
1 |
Institute for Systems Biology |
2000 |
Seattle |
177 |
Max Foundation |
1996 |
Edmonds |
25 |
NBR Center for Health & Aging |
1989 |
Seattle |
40 |
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory |
1965 |
Richland |
-- |
Pacific Northwest Research Institute |
1956 |
Seattle |
100 |
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) |
1977 |
Seattle |
430 |
Puget Sound Blood Center and Program |
1944 |
Seattle |
50 |
Seattle Biomedical Research Institute |
1976 |
Seattle |
240 |
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance |
1998 |
Seattle |
550 |
Solomon Park Research Institute |
1984 |
Kirkland |
5 |
Swedish Medical Center |
1910 |
Seattle |
-- |
Total Employment |
|
|
4,662 |
____________________
Note: Data from Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and
Swedish Medical Center excluded given difficulty in separating biotechnology specific employment
from organization's total employment.
Given that the industry is driven by access to cutting edge research at institutions
such as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, and
access to supporting financial and legal services, it is not surprising that more than
90 percent of the industry employment is concentrated in the greater Seattle metropolitan
area.
Importantly, cities in Eastern Washington, such as Pullman, Spokane and the Tri-Cities area are home to
an increasing number of companies, such as Cadwell
Laboratories, Hollister Stier Laboratories,
The Heart Institute of Spokane,
GenPrime, and others. Advantages of Eastern Washington,
including a supportive economic development community, availability of land, lower
cost-of-living, proximity to Washington State University, Pacific Northwest National
Laboratories and the Spokane Intercollegiate Research & Technology Institute. These
advantages will result in increased biotechnology and medical device development, and
economic benefits to the region.
The biotechnology and medical device industry in the Greater Seattle Metropolitan
area will continue to build on its existing foundation, and new opportunities
are developing as a result of the newly founded
Allen Institute for Brain Science
established in 2003 with $100 million and named for its founder Paul G. Allen. The
inaugural project of the Institute is the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA) that provides high quality gene
expression data at a cellular resolution through the publicly accessible ABA
Application.
The Allen Brain Atlas will be the cornerstone of 21st century brain science with
researchers around the world leveraging information from the Brain Atlas to gain
insights into some of the most profound and challenging questions facing science in
this century. The location of the Allen Institute in Seattle will undoubtedly attract
leading researchers, investors and companies such as Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories
which relocated in 2004 from Iowa to a Washington Technology Center laboratory at the
University of Washington.
Additionally, the location of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest
philanthropic foundation in the U.S. with an endowment of approximately $28.8 billion,
has had since its founding in 1994 and will continue to have an enormous impact
locally and globally. The Gates Foundation provides support in four primary areas:
Global Health, Education, Northwest, and Global Libraries.
The mission of the Gates Foundation's Global Health program is to ensure that people in
the developing world have the same chance for good health as people in the developed
world and they are pursuing this goal through grants to organizations like Seattle's
Program for Appropriate Technology in
Health (PATH), and Seattle Biomedical
Research Institute, both internationally renown organizations supporting improved
healthcare in the developing world.
Conservatively, biotechnology and medical device companies in Washington State
are projected to directly employ more than 25,000 people by 2010 with indirect employment
exceeding 69,000.
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