Life Science Industry Dominates New England's 2007 New Plant Start-Ups

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The New England region has long been a preferred site for the life science industry. Its top-notch universities and strong research infrastructure help to ensure the region a spot with most industry site-selection committees. Underscoring this pattern of success in attracting Pharmaceutical & Biotech capital dollars is that out of the 14 new facilities that opened in 2007, nine of them, or 64%, were for either medical/drug research and/or drug production.

Click on the image at right to see a list of 2007 plant start-ups in the New England region.

As long as we are playing favorites, Massachusetts is still the region's top spot, boasting seven of the nine new life science sites and eight of the total. The state and its leaders continue to develop innovative incentives to attract industry investment, with a particular emphasis on life sciences. It is a strategy that has proved resoundingly successful with the state currently carrying 39 active capital projects worth a whopping $5.2 billion (reference: Pharmaceutical Tracker).

The remainder of New England's 2007 plants was sourced out of the Power (2), Industrial Manufacturing (2) and Alternative Fuels (1) industries. Collectively, all of the new plants employ more than 1,200 people throughout the region. Except for New Hampshire and Vermont, the region's remaining states, including Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island, all opened new facilities in 2007. Maine led the way with three new sites, followed by Rhode Island with two and Connecticut with one.

The new plants added to the region's existing 1,600 operational plants as found in Industrial Info Resources' New England Online Plant Directory. The existing plants provide employment for 360,000 people in the region. With all of the major industrial groups represented in the region, the majority of existing operational plants are claimed by the Industrial Manufacturing sector, which employs more than 200,000 in nearly 600 plants. A distant second place falls to the Food & Beverage Industry, with roughly 200 facilities employing nearly 34,000. The rest of the operational sites are distributed among other groups, including the Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry (Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database) with almost 150 sites employing more than 50,000 people, and the Pulp, Paper & Wood Industry is on board with more than 180 facilities and 27,000 jobs.

Click here for Industrial Info's 2008 Pharmaceutical Industry Outlook.