Southern California Life Science Community Facts

There are approximately 40,000 employees in the life science community in San Diego County at more than 700 companies, including traditional biotech, medical device, diagnostic and technology companies and institutes (Rich’s California BioScience Directories, 2008).

There are four major academic institutions (UCSD, Scripps, Salk, Burnham) and many smaller ones in San Diego County.

In 2007, Southern California received more than $1.79 billion in research funding from the National Institutes of health, well over half of California’s total ($3.1B) and third to the entire states of Massachusetts ($2.2B) and New York ($1.9B), respectively, in overall funding (Source: NIH).

Southern California healthcare venture capital was $1.68 billion in 2007, with VC investment in theregion exceeding Boston’s in 2007. San Diego alone took in $1.22 million in 2007 (Source: Dow Jones Venture One).

Annual Economic Impact in San Diego (direct and indirect): $8.5 billion (Source: San Diego Association of Governments). 

To learn more about the life science industry in San Diego, please click here. (267K PDF)