Pennsylvania

Industry restructuring and job losses are devastating to any community. The key to overcoming these losses is successfully transforming these setbacks into opportunities. The Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center in Bucks County is doing just that. Changes and downsizing in the sciences and pharmaceutical industries in the greater Philadelphia region, coupled with industry mergers and consolidation, resulted in mid- and late-career separations for highly- educated professionals and shuttered research facilities. By seeing potential in misfortune, the Center is leveraging these closed facilities and unemployed research professionals to create a unique environment where entrepreneurship is flourishing.

In its state-of-the-art research labs and offices, the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center houses non-profit research organizations and biotech companies under one roof.  The Center is committed to helping biotech and life science companies grow while serving as a space to promote regional collaboration. Opened in 2006 in a warehouse fated for abandonment, the Center has become home to 29 commercial companies, 8 non-profits, and 12 companies. In order to accommodate more biotechnology start-ups and to meet the growing needs of its current tenants and the broadening industry, the Center needed to expand.

In 2014, EDA announced a $4.6 million investment in the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center. EDA’s investment supports the expansion and the addition of 15 laboratories, office space, increased emergency power capacity, and "Reach-in Minus 80 Degrees Celsius" freezer infrastructure. Within nine years, the applicant estimates 378 positions will be created based on trends from the Center's other facilities.  As a result, the new state-of-the-art space will attract more than 5 companies to relocate to the region and allow countless biotech start-ups to flourish given new resources.