In The News

Biotech jobs booming in Ohio

September 20, 2012  |  Pharmaceuticals Biotech West Chester Ohio

Dayton Business Journal by Laura Englehart, Staff Reporter

Ohio has added 8,500 bioscience-related jobs in a little more than a decade, according to a new report.

There were 1,491 jobs created or retained in the Dayton region in just the past four years alone, leading to a huge surge in local biotech employment at hundreds of companies in the region. Among the largest new projects in the region is the new Abbott Laboratories nutrition plant in Tipp City that is being built at a total cost of $270 million and will employ 240 people when operational.

Employment in the industry climbed 16.5 percent from 2000 to 2011, while the number of overall in Ohio declined, said the report released Wednesday by Columbus-based BioOhio, a nonprofit industry proponent.

Marked growth was cramped slightly from 2010 to 2011 when direct employment in the sector dropped slightly by 230 jobs.

The industry includes drug developers, medical devices makers and research laboratories, along with agricultural biotechnology.

Within the western region — which includes Montgomery County; it’s contiguous counties to the north, west and east; and Fayette, Champaign, Shelby, Auglaize and Mercer counties — there are about 18,870 bioscience jobs.

The region added 18 new biosciences companies from 2007 to 2011, the least amount of six Ohio regions, except the southeast, which tied that number. The northeast region, anchored by Cleveland and Akron, added 181.

There are more than 200 total biosciences locations in the western region. Medical device manufacturers make up the majority of those employers.

Local medical device makers include West Chester-based AtriCure Inc., Dayton-based DRT Medical LLC, Centerville-based DG Medical, Dayton-based GemCity Engineering and Manufacturing, Vandalia-based Innovative Medical Device Solutions, Dayton-based Mauch Inc. and Miamisburg-based X-spine Systems Inc.

Pharmaceutical companies also have a healthy presence in the region. They include Alkermes Inc. in Wilmington, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Butler County; Aptalis Pharma, formerly Eurand, in Vandalia; and Encore Pharmaceuticals Inc. in West Chester.