Fifty engineers at Sunrise Labs in Auburn spend their days turning ideas into medical devices— one of the biotech firms in NH contributing to the Granite State’s 6,992 jobs in life sciences manufacturing and research sector. There are just over 270 biotech businesses in NH clustered in the Seacoast, Lebanon, Manchester and Nashua, says Michael Bergeron, senior business development manager with NH’s Division of Economic Development. They include medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical and biological product manufacturers, and firms conducting research and development in physical, engineering and life sciences.
It’s an expanding sector of the NH economy. The number of biotech jobs in the state, already 15 percent above the national average, is expected to grow 8 percent between 2015 and 2020—higher than the expected 6.2 percent growth nationally, according to the NH Division of Economic Development’s FY 16-17 strategic plan. Life sciences manufacturing and research jobs in NH pay an average salary of $98,206, below the national average of $128,375, according to the NH Division of Economic Development, but well above the overall state average earning of $59,242 in 2015, according to NH Employment Security.
“As with the entire technology industry, New Hampshire has a dynamic growing life sciences sector,” says Michelline Dufort, director of business relations for the NH High Tech Council. “New Hampshire is creating a name for itself and a high reputation as a hub of medical device manufacturing in the region. With the combination of New Hampshire’s high quality of life and a wide array of professional opportunities, it sets the stage for a vibrant workforce and industry.”
Life sciences manufacturing and research has been identified by the Division of Economic Development as one of 11 key industries for the state and among seven that are critical for out‐of‐state recruitment and for in‐state business retention and expansion efforts in its strategic plan.
Growing the sector in NH makes sense as it would position NH as a player in a field expected to grow globally. “Entering the second half of this decade, most life sciences organizations appear to be adopting an attitude of cautious optimism,” states consulting firm Deloitte in its 2016 Global Life Sciences Outlook report. The report estimates pharmaceutical sales will grow 4.3 percent on average between 2015 and 2019, reaching $1.4 trillion globally by 2019. Also important to NH, Deloitte estimates revenue generated by medical technology is expected to grow 4.1 percent annually during the same period, increasing from $369 billion to $454 billion by 2019.
Medtronic, which has the headquarters for its Advanced Energy Division in Portsmouth, recently displaced Johnson & Johnson as the top company for medical technology sales, according to Deloitte. The Portsmouth-based division employs 179 in NH alone and more than 400 in total. The Advanced Energy Division manufactures electrosurgical devices designed to assist surgeons in a variety of procedures, including orthopaedics, spine surgery, surgical oncology, mastectomy, neurosurgery, and Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Device implants.
Challenges to Growth
The life sciences sector does face some challenges moving forward, both globally and in NH. “Spending growth in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical technologies is projected to follow an upward trend due to increasing demand, but pricing challenges are still an issue. Industry margins are being eroded by high discounts, retail sector price controls, public sector purchasing policies, and the move to value-based care,” The Deloitte report states.
IN NH, there is a challenge of infrastructure and finding the “right facilities that can accommodate the infrastructure needed, including the water and sewer required by traditional manufacturing,” Bergeron says. In addition, a region or town has to be in an area where it is “easy to attract the right talent,” he says. Certainly that’s a challenge when data shows since 2007 NH has experienced net out-migration of about 13,000, reversing a trend of in-migration that peaked in 2001 with more than 12,000 people moving to NH, according to PolEcon Research.
Those who do stay, or in many cases return, do so often to escape urban commutes or to seek a quality of life offered in NH. “Really the advantage is the area’s proximity to Boston and the Cambridge area with the best research hospitals, the biggest concentration of biotech firms and some of the best research universities,” says Eric Soederberg, president of Sunrise Labs. “For Sunrise, at least, there are a lot of great engineers living in southern New Hampshire who are tired of traffic and want the New Hampshire quality of life.”
Founded in 1992 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated engineers, Sunrise Labs “starts with someone else’s understanding of an idea or need out there and their idea to solve it,” Soederberg says. “Whether that’s a doctor who has an idea for a therapeutic or monitoring device that would help treat patients or a large medical device company knowing that we can move quickly to develop a product.”
That proximity to Boston can be a double-edged sword, though as there is always the pull of working in Cambridge or relocating altogether in California. Soederberg, who has been in NH 24 years, says a serious challenge facing biotech is the exodus of workers. “Finding the talent is our lifeblood,” he says. “From New Hampshire, in general, there are an awful lot of young people moving out of our state. Demographically our state is going to have a hard time maintaining high tech stuff.” He adds the high cost of public university education in NH compounds the problem.
Carson Sublett, senior site manager at Lonza Biologics in Portsmouth, agrees but insists there’s a silver lining. “That glow of Cambridge draws them typically when they’re younger,” he says. “But, as they experience that, or they start a family, that quality of work/life balance kicks in and they start reconsidering the options of a wonderful career opportunity and professional growth that they can have in New Hampshire at a place like Lonza.”
Growing in NH
There is rich diversity among NH’s growing biotech sector. At Lonza Biologics, active pharmaceutical ingredients are created for biologics and pharmaceutical companies supporting cures and therapies for breast cancer, multiple melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, immunotherapy, rheumatoid arthritis and gastrointestinal indications. And at Sunrise Labs, engineers design commercial medical devices that do everything from cardiac monitoring to diabetes management.
In Salem, PixarBio is using patent pending formulations of Federal Drug Administration-approved biomaterials and non-opiate drugs to target key neurological areas in treating pain. Frank Reynolds, founder and CEO of PixarBio, has been inventing and bringing products to market for years. Currently his goal is to secure FDA approval in 2018 for NeuroRelease, “the only non-opiate product in process at the FDA that can treat post-op treatment longer than five days and last 14 days defeating rebound pain.” Suffering from pain since he was paralyzed for seven years, decades ago, he has made it his life’s mission to offer the millions who take pain medicines annually a non-addictive alternative.
Biotech companies are also top employers in the state. Of the 17 companies named to this year’s Best Companies to Work For in NH list (revealed in September by Business NH Magazine and NH Businesses for Social Responsibility, three are biotech/life sciences companies: Medtronic (ranked first), Novo Nordisk US Bio Production in West Lebanon (third) and Vapotherm in Exeter (ninth).
Novo Nordisk US Bio Production is a biopharmaceutical manufacturer developing products to assist people living with hemophilia. Novo Nordisk employs more than 5,000 in the United States and more than 130 in NH. Novo acquired the West Lebanon site in 2014 from Olympus Biotech, which manufactured protein technology for skeletal repair.
Vapotherm, which relocated to NH three years ago, produces respiratory support technology that delivers high flow rates of heated and humidified gas that flushes expired CO2 in patients, replacing it with fresh oxygenated gas. Vaportherm employs more than 150, including 85 full-time employees and 20 part-time at its NH headquarters.
From large companies like Lonza to smaller firms, sector growth has been steady in NH. Bergeron notes, for instance, that Atrium Medical, which was founded in 1981 with 10 people now employs 120 at its Auburn location. Atrium manufactures millions of sterile medical products for distribution to more than 60 countries annually.
The industry’s growth has paved the way for collaboration. Providing engineering, electronic and software design support and full product development, Sunrise has collaborated with many nearby companies, Soederberg says, including Gamma Medica Inc. in Salem to build “a breast imaging system for cancer screening that’s new, different and better in a lot of ways.” Molecular Breast Imaging is a highly sensitive and specific radiologic exam that relies on functional imaging technology, highlighting metabolic activity in the breast regardless of tissue density.
Carson Sublett, senior site manager at Lonza Biologics, says NH’s location is ideal for growing business. “It is a good geographical location that is easily accessed with close proximity to biotech hubs such as Boston,” he says. “We have very strong partnerships with multiple biotech companies and it’s easy for our customers from around the world to come here.”
Lonza acquired its Pease International Tradeport site in Portsmouth in 1996. The first expansion was in 2006, when an additional 350,000 square feet of fermentation capacity was added. Lonza develops and engineers cell lines through a series of fermentation steps to produce certain antibodies or proteins that can be harvested and purified for use in a number of biologic products.
With 850 employees, it is Lonza’s second largest manufacturing site, while also serving as a base for global staff in engineering, procurement organization, finance, sales, marketing and business development. And more expansion is on the table. Up next, two additional manufacturing suites for cell therapy and new emerging technology. “We’re growing as we speak,” Sublett says. “The state has been very supportive in terms of our needs and what we need to accomplish to maintain not just the base business we operate, but also our growth and expansion. We work closely with New Hampshire Economic Development, the Pease Development Authority and the City of Portsmouth. The decades that Lonza has operated in New Hampshire have been mutually beneficial for the community, the state and Lonza.”
Another advantage, he says, is the “wonderful partnerships we have with the University of New Hampshire and Great Bay Community College. We’re very active with both schools, not only from a recruitment perspective but the sharing of knowledge and capabilities between their institutions and our company. They are wonderful assets for New Hampshire.”
In Hanover, Dartmouth College has attracted, and spun out, a cluster of biotech and bioscience companies. The Dartmouth Regional Technology Center Inc., a nonprofit established in 2004 to help start-up businesses by providing them with a mixed-use technology incubator, has worked with more than 15 companies, including FreshAir Sensor LLC, a bioscience device company.
Founded by Jack O’Toole, company president, and Joe BelBruno, company CTO and a Dartmouth chemistry professor, FreshAir has created sensors that detect specific molecules in secondhand smoke and marijuana, reporting building violations via Wi-Fi or recording them and then allowing them to be retrieved by Bluetooth. “Our mission is improving lives through novel sensor technology,” O’Toole says. “These sensors are the first step.”
Like others in biotech, O’Toole says the industry’s continued success hinges on having the necessary tools. “We have all of the resources we need here,” he says. “There’s very good access to high quality employees and interns in science and engineering.” In fact, thanks to the company’s relationship with the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and the chemistry and computer science departments, “we’re keeping a bunch of young, well-educated people here in New Hampshire,” he says.
In addition to having a steady stream of interns from Dartmouth and other schools, O’Toole says they have been able to hire college graduates directly. “It’s a fun place for them to work, where they can accomplish meaningful things,” he says. “Working at a small company gives them a chance to have much more responsibility, much sooner.”
Certainly, by all accounts, the biotech and biosciences industries offer inherent rewards. “We come to work every day and work to provide hope for people that have no hope; the prospect of elongating their life, where that prospect has gone away,” Sublett says. “We do that in partnership with our customers to provide that life opportunity for people that sometimes we know and most times we’ll never know. That’s beyond a career. It’s actually a mission we have. It’s a wonderful business to be in.”
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