Ohio’s Life Sciences Boom Has Benefits Beyond State Lines

Earlier this month, pharmaceutical giant Bayer announced plans to invest $2.2 billion in a new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in New Albany, just northeast of Columbus. The project is expected to create 600 permanent jobs and another 1,500 construction jobs.

And Bayer is hardly alone in the Buckeye State. In July, Resilience and Eli Lilly announced a $750 million investment to expand production of injectable medicines and devices in the Cincinnati region. In June, Hikma Pharmaceuticals committed $267 million to expand manufacturing operations in Columbus and Bedford. And last year, Amgen announced a $900 million expansion of its New Albany facility, bringing its total investment in Central Ohio to more than $1.4 billion.

Together, these announcements represent more than $4 billion in manufacturing investment across Ohio, building on a life sciences industry that already generates and supports nearly $40 billion in economic output for the state.

This is part of a much larger trend. Since January 2025, biopharmaceutical companies have committed more than $585 billion to new investments across the United States. These commitments will expand domestic research and manufacturing, create good-paying jobs, and strengthen America’s ability to develop and produce increasingly complex medicines.

There are clear reasons why life sciences companies are flocking to the Buckeye State. Ohio offers some of the best research institutions in the country, a deep labor pool of skilled workers and ample manufacturing infrastructure along with a supportive business and regulatory environment.

The state’s major research universities, including The Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve and the University of Cincinnati, are training scientists and advancing medical discoveries. Ohio is also a major hub for clinical research. Between 2019 and 2024, more than 3,500 clinical trials were started, involving more than 2.1 million participants across the state, with researchers at hospitals, universities and other facilities across Ohio helping evaluate promising new treatments.

Ohio also boasts an established industrial base and is home to the engineers and technicians that biopharmaceutical companies need to produce complex medicines at scale. The industry already supports more than 26,000 direct jobs and 136,000 total jobs in Ohio.

These are good-paying careers, too. The average Ohio life sciences worker earned approximately $105,000 in 2023 according to Ohio Life Sciences, roughly 67% more than the state’s private-sector average.

But state leaders in both business and government aren’t resting on their laurels. They’re further investing in workforce development — most notably by establishing the Ohio Life Science Training Center, a public-private partnership in New Albany that will help prepare Ohioans for careers in advanced biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

Ohio’s recent investments show what’s possible when state leaders support scientific talent, build on existing manufacturing expertise and maintain a welcoming business climate.

For states like Ohio, that means more good-paying jobs and opportunities for local communities. For America, it means stronger domestic manufacturing, greater capacity to produce innovative medicines and a foundation for continued global leadership in medical innovation.

Learn more about how the world’s life sciences companies are investing in America: https://www.weworkforhealth.org/investinamerica.