New York City is seeking proposals on how to use $100 million in funds and city land to draw biotech investment and create a life-sciences hub.
"We have such fantastic research institutions here that we would put ourselves up against anyone and argue that we’re the top. But one area where we know that we are not the top is in the commercialization of the life sciences," James Patchett, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, told Forbes. "And, so, we believe that there’s a moment in time, right now, where if we put our cards on the table we can be a leader in this field."
New York City faces competition from San Francisco, where biotech was born, and Boston, where it has become a dominant industry. In 2016, California and Massachusetts each counted about 30,000 biotech workers – about six times as many as New York.
New York City doesn't have the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, or Stanford University; but, New York state comes in third in total funding received from the National Institutes of Health, and the city has become a dense hub of medical research. A biotech-focused real estate complex on the east side of Manhattan, called the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences, has yielded early proof that this ecosystem could provide an incubator for biotech companies.
Source: Forbes, January 23, 2018.