Industry
The West Virginia economy, along with many other states, has undergone significant changes in its overall economic structure. Manufacturing employment continues to decline while service related jobs continue to grow. As part of the process of identifying new opportunities to grow the state economy, policy makers and economists have identified industry clusters that have potential for advancing the state’s economy. In recent years the bioscience industry has received increasing attention and study.
West Virginia has specialized employment concentrations in two of the four bioscience subsectors—agricultural feedstock and chemicals (location quotient of 2.56) and drugs and pharmaceuticals (1.24). Academic bioscience research and development expenditures by State institutions have grown by a rapid 48 percent since 2004 reaching $110 million in 2008, mainly in medical sciences ($55 million) followed by nearly equal shares for agricultural and biological sciences. West Virginia institutions also have seen their funding from the National Institutes of Health rise rapidly, with strong growth in baseline funding since 2004 and funding with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included. The $33 million in venture capital invested in bioscience companies in the last six years was virtually all in the medical therapeutics sector. The 79 bioscience patents over the same six‐year period were led by biochemistry, surgical and medical instruments and drugs and pharmaceuticals.
National studies by the Battelle Memorial Institute and the Milken Institute have identified the bioscience industry as an attractive target for states seeking to stimulate economic growth. This industry has strong job growth and wages well above the national private sector level. As a result, states have been fashioning their public policies to support the continued growth of this industry cluster.
West Virginia bioscience employment ranged from 6,928 in 2001 to 6,912 in 2006. West Virginia bioscience average earnings in 2006 were $55,220 compared to statewide average earnings of $37,894. Bioscience employment was largely concentrated in the Charleston, Huntington and Morgantown Metropolitan Statistical Areas, as well as Tyler County.
Content on this page used with permission of Dr. Tom S. Witt, professor of economics and director, Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University. Read the full 2008 report, 'An Economic Profile of the Biosciences Industry in West Virginia'.
Additional content from the Battelle/BIO State Bioscience Initiatives 2010 report, available here.
