DDW’s Diana Spencer explores some of North America’s most important life science hubs and finds out the benefits of each unique ecosystem.

The United States dominates the biotech sector in North America and globally, with an estimated value share of nearly 59% in 2021¹. According to Key Biotechnology Indicators collated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the country had the largest number of biotechnology firms in 2021 with 2,840², though some sources say that number is now as high as 6,653³.

Not to be outdone by its neighbour, Canada accounts for almost 10% of the world’s biotechnology-related revenues and ranks only behind the US in number of biotech firms⁴, while often overlooked Mexico hosts 180 biotechnology companies and boasts four strategic life science regions: Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, and Nuevo León⁵.

Here, we focus on Vancouver’s growing hub, the US’s two most established regions for biotech, an emerging hotspot, New York.

Vancouver: A home of innovation

British Columbia (BC), with Vancouver at its heart, has one of the fastest growing life sciences sectors in Canada. To support this, in 2023, the government launched the BC Life Sciences and Biomanufacturing Strategy that aims to maximise opportunities for the region in the global innovation economy. According to a Life Sciences BC report, the number of large businesses (those employing more than 50 employees) in the region grew by 57% between 2018 and 2021 – from 68 to 107 large businesses. The report also highlights that the sector’s activity is largely concentrated in the Metro Vancouver area, which is home to 64% of the businesses and 75% of the sector’s employment. Private investment in BC’s life sciences companies totalled a record $3.3 billion over 2020 and 2021⁶.

Vancouver is home to over 70 biotech companies within the Greater Vancouver Area, directly employing around 2,600 life sciences professionals. One such company is Absci, a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) based drug discovery that recently signed deals with AstraZeneca and Almirall to develop targets within oncology and dermatology. The company has a pipeline of three drug candidates, including its lead compound anti-TL1A antibody ABS-101 for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, the first differentiated antibody using generative AI.

Another Vancouver-based biotech innovator is Zymeworks, which is developing a pipeline of novel, multifunctional biotherapeutics to improve the standard of care for difficult-to-treat diseases. The company’s own portfolio of multi-specific antibody therapeutics and antibody-drug conjugates includes folate receptor-⍺targeted topoisomerase 1 inhibitor antibody-drug conjugate ZW191 and bispecific antibody ZW171, both cleared to enter Phase I clinical development by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in summer 2024.

Boston & Cambridge, Massachusetts: A new era of biotechnology

The Boston & Cambridge area has long been an important place for life sciences research, thanks to the presence of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and prestigious research hospitals, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. In 1977, the Cambridge City Council was the first to pass local legislation allowing research of recombinant DNA and the world’s first biotech trade organisation, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio), launched there in 1985⁷.

This support for the sector has continued. In 2008, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act, and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center was created in 2007. Now, Boston is home to almost 1,000 biotech companies, boasts the headquarters of pharma giants such as Biogen, Shire and Takeda, and is a fertile environment for start-ups. Recent Boston success stories include mRNA vaccine pioneers Moderna and gene therapy leader Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Cambridge-based Angiex is developing nuclear-delivered antibody-drug conjugates (ND-ADCs) to treat cancer. In July 2024, the company dosed the first patient in a Phase I clinical trial of AGX101, its TM4SF1-directed antibody-drug conjugate for the treatment of solid tumours. Paul Jaminet, CEO and Founder of Angiex, explains why the infrastructure of the region was so important to the launch of the company: “For entrepreneurs, the advantage of having ready access to expertise, capital, and a company incubation ecosystem is hard to overstate. In the case of Angiex, I think it would have been hard to build the company anywhere else. For us, LabCentral, the incubator located near MIT, was of great benefit. In our early years we had limited funding and had to be very capital efficient, and having the resources of an incubator and the ability to share lab space was immensely helpful.”

San Francisco Bay Area, California: Where talent meets technology

Nicknamed ‘Biotech Bay’, San Francisco’s biotech history goes back to 1976 with the founding of Genentech. Today, the region boasts 12 million square feet of biotech space, with a workforce sourced from leading institutions like the University of California, San Francisco, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

San Francisco-based Allogene Therapeutics recently secured a $15 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). David Chang, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, feels that newer companies in the area benefit from proximity to leading academic institutions, a rich talent pool, and access to some of the largest venture capital funds. He expands: “The San Francisco Bay Area was the birthplace of biotechnology. Looking forward, as we see technology like AI playing a larger role in all areas of drug discovery, having Silicon Valley nearby will be critically important to integration.”

Kyverna Therapeutics is another Bay Area company focused on CAR T-cell therapies for autoimmune diseases. Peter Maag, CEO, explains why location so central to their success so far: “The Bay Area is a cradle of talents and expertise, stemming from the significant concentration of prestigious academic institutions and a deeply rooted ‘can-do’ attitude among its residents. This continues to attract talent from all over the world, adding to the rich culture and diversity that make the Bay Area the place to be for innovation, growth, and professional fulfilment.”

Judy Chou, President and Chief Executive Officer of AltruBio, also points to the proximity of Silicon Valley as a significant advantage to the biotech industry in the Bay Area. AltruBio raised $225 million in a Series B financing in May 2024 to progress its immune checkpoint enhancer PSGL-1 agonist antibody, ALTB-268. She adds: “The close proximity of academic institutions and biotech promotes the rapid translation of scientific discoveries into commercial products, in addition to facilitating the constant exchange of ideas and advancements, continuing to drive innovation and helping maintain the competitive edge of this ecosystem.”

New York State: Leveraging global connections

Though it is certainly not as well established as Boston or the Bay Area, New York is making efforts to develop its life science industry through a broad range of economic development programmes and public-private partnerships. In the six years since legislative authorisation of Empire State Development’s (ESD) $620 million Life Science Initiative in April 2017, New York has seen a remarkable increase in life science activity⁸. The state is now second in the US for R&D spend by publicly traded life science companies, second for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, and third for highest number of bioscience patents issued. The largest academic cell and gene therapy (CGT) research and manufacturing facility, Roswell Park Cancer Center, is currently in development as part of the Statewide Cell and Gene Therapy Initiative.

New York based Promontory Therapeutics completed enrolment for a Phase II clinical trial of its lead therapeutic candidate in patients with late-line metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in early 2024. Matthew Price, Co-founder & COO, feels that New York is creating a strong ecosystem for life sciences. “For a time, there was an old adage about how New York suffered from a mismatch in the amount of innovation talent, IP and medical leadership (extremely high) versus private investment dollars following NIH grants (surprisingly low),” he says. “But now there is the emergence of leading, large healthcare VC and private equity groups in New York and physical biopharma hubs such as one in The Alexandria Center, Cure, and others under construction, that are now matched by increasing industry awareness and physical support presence (JNJ’s JLabs, as an example).”

From DDW Volume 25 – Issue 4, Fall 2024 Read the digital issue

References

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1246614/top-countries-share-of-global-biotech-value/
2. https://www.oecd.org/innovation/inno/keybiotechnologyindicators.htm
3. https://www.omnicoreagency.com/biotech-industry-trends/#:~:text=Furthermore%2C%20there%20are%20around%206%2C653,the%20number%20reaches%2020%2C922%20globally
4. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/science-research/emerging-technology/biotechnology/role/canada-biotechnology-strategy.html#:~:text=Canada%20is%20internationally%20well%20positioned,support%20the%20development%20of%20biotechnology.
5. https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/mexico-healthcare-products-services#:~:text=There%20are%20about%20180%20firms,energy%20production%2C%20and%20other%20areas.
6. https://lifesciencesbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023_lifesciences_in_bc-sectorprofile.pdf
7. https://www.bio.org/gooddaybio-archive/how-boston-became-biotech-hub#:~:text=Biotech%20boom%3A%20The%20Massachusetts%20Life,of%20Health%20funding%20in%202022.
8. https://esd.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2023-Life-Science-Initiative-Annual-Report.pdf

About the author

Diana Spencer is Senior Digital Content Editor at DDW. She has 19 years’ experience in both print and digital editorial roles for B2B publications dedicated to the life sciences sector, including medical and pharmaceutical industry journals/magazines.