Bioscience Industry Contributes More than $6.7 Billion to the Local Economy

The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber today released a study that analyzed the economic impact of the Bioscience Industry to the Greater Oklahoma City region. The study showed the Bioscience sector contributes $6.7 billion in economic activity to the region, supports 51,000 jobs earning $2.2 billion in employee compensation, and generates $227 million in state and local taxes.

“The economic impact this industry provides to our region is staggering,” Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Chairman Carl Edwards said. “The truth is we are still in the early stages of developing this important sector of our economic engine, and we are already generating a great return on our investments.”

The study, completed by Battelle Technology Partnerships Practice, was commissioned by the Chamber in combination with an update of the organization’s Bioscience Strategic plan. “We have a commitment to helping see the biosciences grow as a key driver of our economy,” Edwards continued. “Battelle is a leader in the field, both for strategy development and sector analysis. Their work has given us guidance, and the analysis shows that we are making progress -- the region has a vibrant and growing bioscience sector.”

Greater Oklahoma City’s bioscience sector showed estimated revenues of $4.1 billion and directly employed 27,800 workers, earning an estimated $1.5 billion in employee compensation in 2008. The 51,000 total jobs created or supported by the bioscience sector accounted for more than six percent of all employment in the region.

Direct jobs with the bioscience sector accounted for three percent of total jobs in the region. The total impact of the region’s non-hospital bioscience sector, i.e. private bioscience companies, was $1.9 billion. Academic Life Sciences R&D contributed $186.9 million in direct economic activity and $344 million in total activity.

“As the legislative session draws near, there has been talk about cutting programs, such as OCAST, EDGE and research institutions that are critical to this industry’s survival,” Greater Oklahoma City Chamber President & CEO Roy Williams said. “We are now starting to see what this industry means to our region, let alone our state and we think it would be foolish to impede this growth when we are starting to see real, quantitative results.”