Unfortunately for BioHouston, they hosted their annual luncheon the day before Hurricane Ike blew into town. Attendance was clearly down, so I wanted to highlight some of the positive metrics they reported on the life sciences industry in Houston:
- 17 new life science companies were started in Houston during 2007. That’s a 13% increase over 2006.
- The number of life science companies in the Houston region has doubled over the last five years to 157 (28% pharma, 31% medical devices, 5% diagnostics).
- Patent applications at Houston institutions (not including the private sector) increased by 43% to 424 in 2007.
- Technology licenses in the Houston region were up 12% to 235 in 2007.
This is all great news. More companies are forming, and more technology is being patented and licensed. I’m curious how this growth has affected the number of employees in the life science sector and the number of VC dollars invested in Houston life science companies. And how does our growth compare to the major biotech clusters?
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