"The Future Is Bright" With Opportunities to Grow: BioAlberta's State of the Industry Reports on Alberta's Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry

BioAlberta has published its 2023 State of the Industry (SOI) report. This year's report includes new insights and trends from the industry to reflect market conditions and the growth of the sector.

The report's results stem from the voices of over 200 companies operating within multiple sub-sectors in the life sciences industry in Alberta, each providing a snapshot of their specialties and focus, in addition to metrics on their research and development spending, human resources, revenue, and financing, providing BioAlberta with a high-level and robust view of the ecosystem.

Key findings from the SOI 2023 report

• The industry is optimistic, with surveyed companies forecasting 55.5% growth in revenue in 2023, having delivered 2022 revenues of nearly $2.0 billion.
• The life sciences industry continues to innovate, providing diagnostics, therapeutics, and treatments to support the population through the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The industry remains in a state of high growth, propelled by many startups/scaleups and other rapidly advancing companies. More than one in three surveyed companies was founded since 2019, and 82.3% self-describe as "emerging" or "growth" companies.
• Survey participants noted an increase in spending on research and development by 32.2% from 2020 to 2022, reaching $327.3 million last year.
• Life sciences companies are also high-impact job creators, with surveyed companies forecasting nearly 6,000 employees in 2023 ? up 1,800 (44.3%) from 2022. When considering total direct, indirect and induced employment, the sector is forecast to contribute over 23,300 jobs in 2023. One quarter of people working at surveyed companies hold a PhD.
• Posing an opportunity for improvement, financing has seen a reduction in the last year, declining to $588.8 million in 2022 from nearly $1.4 billion the year prior, likely due in part to less need for COVID-19 solutions, stabilization of the cannabis industry, and a more difficult investment climate. To that, qualitative feedback notes that surveyed companies applaud moves by governments and other parties to improve support to early-stage companies and notes that more could be done.
• Collaboration between stakeholders and ecosystem players that are working together with multinational enterprises (MNEs) and public sector organizations have helped form sustainable relationships as companies develop innovative emerging technology and drive improved patient outcomes.

"Alberta's life sciences sector is flourishing, contributing 23,300 direct, indirect and induced jobs, and nearly $2 billion to the Alberta economy. What's most exciting is that we see growth beyond our traditional strengths in pharmaceuticals and health technology, into areas such as digital health, bioenergy and proteins and functional ingredients. We are also seeing entrepreneurs establish companies outside of Edmonton and Calgary, providing jobs and economic activity across the province," says Robb Stoddard, President & CEO at BioAlberta.

"Alberta's ability to re-build itself after the COVID-19 pandemic and emerge as a growing and successful sector with an optimistic outlook, demonstrates its strength as an ecosystem," said Jeremy Webster, Partner and Healthcare Financial Advisory Leader at Deloitte Canada, and Badeia Jawhari, Senior Manager and Healthcare and Life Sciences Leader at Deloitte. "The future is bright for the life sciences industry in Alberta, with many emerging and growing companies continuing to grow and scale in Alberta and beyond our borders. There is great optimism within the ecosystem that has developed across public and private sectors to innovate, grow, and invest in Alberta companies while improving patient outcomes."

To download a copy of the 2023 Life Sciences State of the Industry Report select this link: HERE

About BioAlberta

BioAlberta is a member-driven and funded not for profit industry association that represents and promotes the province's vibrant and diverse life sciences industry. Through our many partnerships and collaborations, we are dedicated to promoting Alberta's life science sectors, locally, nationally, and internationally. BioAlberta enables success for its members by providing a wide range of networking and educational events, and by effectively delivering policy options to governments. BioAlberta activities are focused in key strategic areas: advocacy; promotion, marketing, and networking; industry development.