Puerto Rico offers a top-rated bioscience ecosystem, that for 60 years has successfully developed, transfer and manufacture biopharmaceutical, medical devices and bio-agricultural products that are distributed to over 120 countries with proven quality and business continuity. The Caribbean Island with a surface area of 9,104 km2 has the highest density of bioscience companies in the world and is the largest US jurisdiction exporting bio-pharmaceuticals of any states, ranking in the top 5 countries that export the highest value of medicines in the world.
With a 3.2 million population, the major economic sectors are distributed in 48% manufacturing, 21% services, 14% commerce and 8% financial with the other 9% distributed in other sectors as tourism, government, and agriculture. Of the 48% manufacturing sector the pharmaceutical industry represents about 70% of the exports and about 1/3 of the government revenues.
According to the BIO’s TEConomy Report 2022 www.bio.org , Puerto Rico standout as the only US jurisdiction that is specialized in 4 of the 5 biosciences subsectors that includes the pharmaceuticals, medical devices, the research, the testing and medical laboratories. While 8 states have specialization in only 3 of the bioscience subsectors (Figure II). Puerto Rico has a sizable bioscience industry with a highly specialized employment concentration and a diverse set of industry strengths. Bioscience
companies employed nearly 39,000 direct jobs in 2021 across 999 business establishments. Industry employment increased by 4.5 percent from 2018, with job gains contributed by three of the industry’s five major subsectors. Puerto Rico is highly specialized in its employment concentration in the biosciences with a location quotient is 3.27 and a Pharmaceutical LQ of 6.75, this is in the top percentile of most of the USA States.
Large States : California, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania
Sizable States: Puerto Rico, Texas
Specialized States: Puerto Rico, Indiana, New Jersey, Maine, North Carolina, Utah, Maryland, Illinois
Concentrated States : Rhode Island, New York, South California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, low
Throughout the Puerto Rico history the Island has demonstrated the intellect, creativity, discipline, adaptability, professionalism, and productivity of our workforce. During 1940’s the Rh blood factor was discovered experimenting with the Rhesus monkey colony in Puerto Rico, now days we develop new products utilizing the latest technologies to produce medicines with small and large molecules, and Gene and Cell therapies. Moving Puerto Rico from the traditional plant breeding of sugarcane in the 1940’s, to today’s technologies where gene editing is used to improve yields and nutrition in different environments. In advanced manufacturing, Puerto Rico achieved the 1st FDA approvals for the real-time release of products and large-scale continuous manufacturing for a product. These are some of the many examples of Puerto Rico’s innovation.
Puerto Rico’s Metrics
As you can see, to reach a position of leadership in the biosciences in a highly regulated environment took many years of preparation and changes in the sophistication of the economy, moving from the agriculture to the industrialization of the textiles industry to petrochemicals, electronics, medical devices and pharmaceutical. The island created experts that are exporting the knowledge to other regions of the world. Our universities established centers of excellence in different technologies in areas of the biosciences, engineering, computational sciences, electronics, energy, and aerospace among many others. The sophisticated construction industry has built a multibillion dollars of biopharma infrastructure, including the Molecular Sciences & Research Center housed in a 154,000sf seven floor building with transgenic animal house for clinical research www.cicim.upr.edu .
Furthermore, the government of Puerto Rico www.ddec.pr.gov , has a strategic initiative to continue the development of the Island as a leading hub in the “Knowledge Economy”. It has invested significantly in the development of world class universities, research institutes and establishing strategic international research alliances and fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem around these research assets to realize significant gain with the creation of the Science Research and Technology Trust www.prsciencetrust.org . Since the next wave of economic growth globally will be led by innovation and entrepreneurship, this is a key economic driver for the Island. One important element of this entrepreneurial ecosystem is the encouragement of faculty/student research driven entrepreneurship.
The INDUSTRY UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTER Inc. known as INDUNIV was founded in 1984 as the 1st Cluster in the US with the vision to enhance Puerto Rico’s status as the preferred location for new business opportunities through knowledge creation in the life sciences including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, electronic, healthcare, and allied industries. This vision was to be achieved through the effective collaboration between the Industry, Academia and Government maintaining the strategic plans through political cycles www.induniv.org. Through the 38 years of operation, the non-for-profit organization has been supported by our members ABBVIE, AMGEN, AVARA, BAYER Crop Science, BD Biosciences, BLDM, BMS, CIC Construction Group, CAI, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, LILLY, MERCK, Overall Contractors, PRINCIPIA, PRO Quality Network, SKALAR, VIATRIS, and VOCES and our partners: DDEC, UPR, BIO, CSBA, PRSTRT, PIA, PRABIA, PRMA, and the PRCC. Thanks to our members and Partners, INDUNIV has been successful in supporting the growth of Puerto Rico’s Bioscience Industry, being recognized as a global leader.
Employment Growth Trends for the U.S. Bioscience Industry and Private Sector 2001-2021 Source : TEConomy Partners analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW data; enhanced by lightcast (Duration 2022.3).
According to the 2022 TEConomy Report, the nation’s bioscience industry steadily grew during the last three years—a period which included the significant economic and public health challenges of the global pandemic—and by 2021 exceeded 2.1 million jobs in more than 127,000 business establishments spread across every state throughout the U.S. Since 2018, bioscience employers grew their payrolls by 11 percent while the overall private sector experienced a net jobs decline of 1.5 percent, due to the steep job losses experienced during the initial pandemic wave and economic shutdowns of 2020.
Ivan Lugo-Montes, Executive Director
In addition to the bioscience industry being the fastest growing sector of the economy, the public health emergency of the pandemic demonstrated the need to onshore and expand the research, development, and manufacturing of critical medicines, diagnostics, and medical equipment capabilities reducing the high dependency of Asia. The Puerto Rico Bioscience highly specialized talent, fluent in Spanish, English, and cGMPs, with world-class incentives, a reliable transportation and logistics system, and rated in the top tear Location Quotient of 3.27LQ in total Biosciences and LQ of 6.75 in Pharmaceutica, makes the Territory of Puerto Rico the ideal location to onshore and investment in the Biosciences and allied Industries. Due to its strategic location, Puerto Rico is also the ideal site to establish a national security stockpile depot of critical products required during a national health emergency.
For more information contact the author Ivan Lugo-Montes at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-lugo-2069396
