Indiana’s life sciences industry has a $50 billion total impact on the state’s economy, according to recently updated data gathered by the Indiana Business Research Center at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and BioCrossroads, Indiana’s initiative for investment, development and advancement of the state’s signature life sciences strengths.

Now with a workforce of 55,000 people at more than 1,975 companies in the areas of drugs and pharmaceuticals, medical devices and equipment, agricultural chemicals and feedstock, medical, research and testing laboratories and biologistics, Indiana is ranked as one of the top five states in the life sciences industry – based on the highest number of employees in the sector, the highest number of companies and the highest concentration of employees (BIO/Battelle State Bioscience Industry Development Report 2012).

Indiana’s life sciences exports totaled $9.3 billion (one-third of Indiana’s total exports), ranking as the third highest in the United States, behind only California and Texas.

These companies are also continuing to discover and commercialize new products. There were 489 patent filings for life sciences-related innovations in 2011, and 173 new products approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“These statistics just continue to get better for us, and demonstrate across the board that the life sciences are a robust industry and a valuable driver of Indiana’s economic growth. It is imperative that we continue the momentum, and BioCrossroads has several initiatives in progress to capitalize on our unique strengths,” said David L. Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads. “These data elevate Indiana to the same company as America’s other world-renowned centers of healthcare innovation: Massachusetts, California, North Carolina and New Jersey.”

Other key findings include the fact Indiana’s life sciences venture capital investments rose in 2012 to $64.7 million as well as the fact that the average annual wage for a life sciences worker is now $88,504, compared to $40,272 for the average private sector wage. In addtion, Indiana life sciences workers earn nearly $5 billion in annual wages.

Indiana is home to the global headquarters for: Biomet, Cook Medical, DePuy Orthopaedics, Dow AgroSciences, Eli Lilly and Company, WellPoint, and Zimmer and the North American headquarters of Roche Diagnostics; Beckman Coulter, Boston Scientific, Covance, Express Scripts, Mead Johnson, and Medtronic have major operations located within the state.

For more information, visit www.biocrossroads.com for the BioCrossroads’ 2012 annual report.

Source: BioCrossroads, Inside INdiana Business