 | According to CBRE’s recently released 2019 Life Sciences Clusters report, the national life sciences industry is growing at the fastest pace since 2000, strengthening in established markets, and sparking momentum in emerging markets – markets such as Pittsburgh. While Pittsburgh has a healthy life sciences ecosystem supported primarily by its rich concentration of medical/health services powerhouses and preeminent research universities and colleges, recent acceleration in the market has it poised to become a leading life sciences hub. On the basis of its growing life sciences and high tech talent pools, industry funding, and observation of its overall community of "eds & meds," Pittsburgh was ranked the 9th top emerging life sciences cluster in the country by CBRE Research.
Figure 1: CBRE Research's Top-Ranked Emerging Life Sciences Clusters
Source: CBRE Research, 2019.
While Pittsburgh’s overall life sciences talent pool of approximately 13,000 employees is on a modest scale compared to established markets like Boston or Philadelphia, there has been significant energy in employment growth recently, with life sciences employment jumping by over 11% from 2015 to 2017. This growth is expected to continue: as identified in the report, Pittsburgh’s higher ed institutions are an excellent source of future life sciences workers, generating over 1,200 biological and biomedical grads annually, providing ample opportunity for life sciences companies to harness new talent.
Figure 2: Pittsburgh Life Sciences vs. Overall Employment Growth, 2015-2017
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Source: CBRE Research, US BLS, Pittsburgh MSA, Q1 2019.
Pittsburgh’s life sciences market has an impressive edge over others due to its highly-regarded medical research and health services establishments, which drive innovation and garner significant funding from National Institutes of Health (NIH). Indeed, University of Pittsburgh alone is the 4th largest single recipient of NIH funding in the country. CBRE ranked Pittsburgh the nation’s 9th best medical research and health services cluster, topping markets like Seattle, Houston, Chicago and D.C. The medical expansion boom ongoing in Pittsburgh (UPMC’s $2 billion investment in new hospitals, Allegheny Health Network’s $700 million expansion) will only stand to strengthen Pittsburgh’s stature in this sector and complement the life sciences field more.
Contact:
Lisa DeNight
Senior Research Analyst
T + 1 215 561 8932
lisa.denight@cbre.com
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