California Life Sciences Institute Releases 2016 Report On Economic Impact Of Bay Area Life Science Startups

Report demonstrates that Bay Area life science startups are making significant contributions to local and state economy with public and private funding, job creation, and innovative discoveries. Almost half of surveyed companies have a woman in the C-suite.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI) today released a report entitled “2016 Economic Impact of Bay Area Life Science Startups” at the BIO International Convention in San Francisco. This first-ever report measures the economic contributions of 137 pre-Series A Bay Area life science companies (a 30 percent sample of 450 companies contacted) in terms of funding, jobs, and patents. The report demonstrates that Bay Area life science startups are making significant contributions to the local and state economy with public and private funding, job creation, and innovative discoveries.

“These startups need the help of the entire ecosystem – legislators, biopharma, investors, trade associations, and other stakeholders – to commercialize their innovative discoveries.”

CLSI is the non-profit partner of the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), and supports the foundations of innovation – workforce development, STEM education, and entrepreneurship – that have made California home to the world’s most prominent life sciences ecosystem.

The genesis of the report came from a group of organizations that work with Bay Area life science startups – QB3, Stanford Office of Technology Licensing, Silicon Valley Bank, and UCSF’s Center for Digital Health Innovation – all of whom saw value in trying to capture the impact of these early-stage companies, a large portion of whom operate largely under the radar.

Collected during the second quarter of 2015, the data demonstrate:

• Over half (59 percent) of respondents’ companies are one-to-four-years old, and 13 percent are less than a year old.
• Therapeutics comprised the largest (36 percent) segment of respondents, followed by Medical Devices (19 percent), Research Tools (11 percent), and Digital Health (9 percent). Oncology is the leading indication in both Therapeutics and Medical Device companies.
• Respondents have raised a total of $360 million in funding: 77 percent from private sources; 23 percent from public.
• These companies are providing jobs for over 1,200 people, either full- or part-time or consultants.
• Respondents have filed 468 patents, with 158 of them granted.
• Just under half of the respondents (47 percent) have a woman in the C-suite, significantly higher than the industry at large.

“While forced to navigate significant funding and regulatory challenges, our region’s earliest life science startups are still having a strong positive impact on our local and state economy,” said Lori Lindburg, executive director, California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI). “These startups need the help of the entire ecosystem – legislators, biopharma, investors, trade associations, and other stakeholders – to commercialize their innovative discoveries.”

Steve Karp, senior advisor to the California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI), who spearheaded the analysis, said, “While these startups are on the leading edge of innovation in the industry, they often are not captured in traditional analyses, leaving uncovered the important economic and workforce contributions of our region’s youngest companies.”

The report is available at the 2016 BIO International Convention in San Francisco. The launch includes a panel discussion moderated by Todd Rufo, director of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and features key leaders in the Bay Area entrepreneurial life sciences ecosystem from Bayer, Illumina, JLABS, and QB3. The panel discusses the factors that underscore the region’s remarkable innovation engine.

An executive summary and full copy of the report can be found at: www.califesciences.org/EIR2016.

About California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI)

California Life Sciences Institute (CLSI) supports the foundations of innovation that have made California home to the world’s most prominent life sciences ecosystem. With a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, CLSI’s mission is to maintain California’s leadership in life sciences innovation through support of entrepreneurship, education, and career development. CLSI is an affiliate of the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), which represents more than 750 life sciences organizations. The California Life Sciences Institute is a non-profit 501(c)(3), and was established in 1990 as the BayBio Institute. Learn more at http://califesciencesinstitute.org.