New York’s Next Big Industry: Commercial Life Sciences

What We’re Doing

Over the past decade the Partnership Fund has committed over $50 million to support the growth of commercial life sciences in New York. We have backed individual companies such as Intra-Cellular Therapies and Petra Pharma. Our BioAccelerate NYC Prize provided some of the first proof-of-concept funding in the city to accelerate the commercialization of academic research. This prize catalyzed New York academic medical centers to raise over $70 million of proof-of-concept funding for their researchers.

In 2019, the Partnership Fund partnered with New York state to incentivize venture fund SOSV to open their life science accelerator program, IndieBio, in New York City. New York state has provided funding to help launch IndieBio NY, and the Partnership Fund is making follow on investments in the New York-based graduates.

IndieBio NY launched its first cohort in May 2020. The program will host two cohorts annually.

Learn more about IndieBio in New York.

Why New York City?

New York City boasts one of the world’s largest concentrations of bio-medical research institutions, world-class universities, disease-focused foundations, healthcare service providers and proximity to major pharmaceutical operations. For the first time, New York surpassed Massachusetts in NIH funding in FY 2021 and 2022, ranking behind only California as the second highest among U.S. states. New York had ranked third for over a
decade prior to 2021.

In a 2016 report, the Partnership’s research team identified the life sciences sector as a key growth industry in New York. Subsequently, city and state government have invested $1.5 billion to accelerate the development of wet lab space, support creation of multiple incubators and accelerators, and attract venture capital investors to the region. Recent highs in private and public sector funding show that efforts to grow life sciences in New York are taking root and New York is narrowing the gap with competitor markets, as detailed in a report issued December 2023.

Download our December 2023 report on life sciences

Download our April 2021 report on life sciences

Download our June 2016 report on life sciences

How It’s Going

The pace of life sciences activity is accelerating as investments in R&D, lab space and incubators for early-stage life science companies are starting to bear fruit.

Download Timeline of Life Sciences Development in New York City

Job Growth

New York state life sciences companies added 17,000 jobs over the last decade, with about 94% of the new jobs being added within the last six years. New York City life sciences companies added over 5,000 jobs in 2021 and 2022 alone.

Ratio of Private to Public Investment

New York received 77 cents of VC funding for every dollar of NIH funding received in FY 2022, up substantially from 33 cents in 2018 and 10 cents in 2013.