Like executives in many industries, leaders in the life sciences sector have begun to focus more on “normal” priorities now that the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be past its emergency stages. For those companies, at least here in the hot spot of New Jersey, the shift will be significant. After all, many spent the better of two years directly confronting the dire threat posed by the pandemic.
As the president and CEO of the Health Care Institute of New Jersey, Dean Paranicas can offer a perspective both deep and wide on where the industry has been and where it’s going. For this edition of NJBIZ Conversations, Paranicas talked about where growth in the industry will come from in the near future, government moves to reign in health care costs and the business climate in New Jersey.
“New Jersey has by my count nine top 10 rankings across various categories in the country in terms of standing relative to peer states. And those nine that include three number ones and three number twos, so you can see that we’re talking about — whether it’s the R&D of heart disease, cancer — the number of bioscientists and chemists, the number of cancer drugs and development, manufacturing employees — the standing of the biotech and life sciences community empirically in comparison to peer states … that’s why companies want to come to New Jersey, because they have that concentration here,” he said.
“That being said, work does need to be done and work and always need to be done. We appreciate the awareness of our elected officials in Trenton, as well as our congressional delegation, of what it means for New Jersey to be a life sciences leader globally. They recognize that. You can’t ignore an economic standing where you represent an economic impact of about $121 billion a year [that] represents about 19% of the state’s GDP.”
To watch the full interview, click on the image below.
