The CEO Council for Growth, University City District, and University City Science Center Partner to Anticipate Needs of Rapidly Growing Sectors

The CEO Council for Growth, University City District, and the University City Science Center recently engaged Econsult, a Philadelphia-based firm that provides economic research and analysis, to help develop an understanding of the range of projected jobs in the Cell & Gene Therapy and Connected Health industries in Greater Philadelphia. The study will focus on needs during the next 3-5 years and will also explore what education and training programs are – or need to be – in place to meet the projected demand.

The process will include partnering with a range of organizations in these sectors to support their growth through training and placement of qualified candidates for high-demand jobs at different educational and skill levels. To that end, an Advisory Board (AB), consisting of 20 individuals from 17 different organizations has been formed. The AB met October 3rd to kick off the study with a discussion of preliminary research results as well as the earliest findings from a survey intended to capture stakeholders’ perception of the current and future state of the workforce for these sectors.

Notable among the background research findings, nationwide (2018):

  • The U.S. cell & gene therapy field attracted $2.9 billion in venture capital funding
  • Nearly 30,000 related patents were issued
  • More than 487,000 individuals were employed in the sector

Regionally, we’ve seen:

  • A 24% increase in biotech R&D firms over the last decade
  • A 219% increase in patents since 2008
  • $240.1 million in NIH funding for projects with key words “cell therapy” or “gene therapy” during the period 2014-2018, besting all others including Boston, Houston, Seattle and NYC

Share your opinion about the future of cell & gene therapy and connected health workforce needs.

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This project is funded in part by a grant from The Lenfest Foundation.