Экономика биотехнологий Сан-Диего: рост в $55 млрд и угроза от глобальной конкуренции

Fifty years ago, a handful of California startups launched an entirely new industry. In South San Francisco, Genentech showed that recombinant DNA technology could transform medicine and create therapies once thought impossible. In Thousand Oaks, Amgen proved that breakthrough science could be scaled into a global biotechnology enterprise. And here in San Diego, Hybritech pioneered antibody-based diagnostics, seeding what is now one of the world’s leading life science clusters. Today, that cluster is one of the engines of California’s life science economy. In 2025, San Diego County’s life science industry generated $55.2 billion in economic output, directly employed nearly 62,000 people and supported more than 155,000 jobs, at an average salary above $203,000, according to Biocom’s 2026 Life Science Economic Impact Report. Nearly 1,900 life science establishments call the region home. Yet that strength is not guaranteed. Financing conditions remain difficult for many emerging companies and regulatory uncertainty, disruptions in federal research funding, geopolitical tensions, tariffs and intensifying global competition are creating new pressures across the ecosystem. The strain is already visible: San Diego’s life science employment fell 2.55% in 2025. Even modest disruptions to research funding or regulatory capacity can have outsized downstream consequences for startup formation, clinical development, manufacturing and patient access. Nations around the world are investing aggressively to capture leadership in biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and precision medicine. China, in particular, has made biotechnology a national priority, committing significant resources to research, development and commercialization. The future of biotechnology will increasingly be shaped by artificial intelligence, genomic medicine, cell and gene therapies, advanced diagnostics and new manufacturing technologies, all areas California pioneered and is uniquely positioned to lead. But in a global market, leadership follows science and investment, not first roots. That’s why California’s ecosystem matters. From the laboratories of UC San Diego, the Salk Institute, Scripps Research and the broader University of California system, Stanford and California Institute of Technology, discoveries flow continually into startups and emerging companies. Venture capital and strategic investment translate those discoveries into products. Experienced executives, scientists, regulatory specialists and manufacturers provide the expertise to navigate the long journey from laboratory bench to patient bedside. The result is a virtuous cycle that has produced therapies for cancer, rare diseases, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular disease and countless other conditions. The ultimate measure of that work isn’t economic output. It’s whether a therapy extends a life, whether a diagnostic delivers an answer, whether a treatment gives a family more time together. To keep that engine running here as the industry enters its next half-century, we must stay committed to the elements that made our leadership possible: investing in scientific research, supporting STEM education and workforce development, encouraging entrepreneurship, strengthening advanced manufacturing and maintaining policies that let innovation flourish. The next generation of breakthroughs is already taking shape in San Diego laboratories and startups. The question is not whether scientific innovation will continue. It is whether we will maintain the environment that allows it to thrive here. If we do, San Diego will remain what it has helped California be for half a century: the place where the future of medicine is invented. Scott is president and CEO of Biocom, the largest life science membership association in California, headquartered in San Diego.