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Located on Florida’s Gulf Coast and anchored by the Cities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Pinellas County is home to a thriving life sciences industry. Pinellas County is committed to attracting new life science and medical technology businesses as well as facilitating the organic growth of companies that already call our community home. Pinellas County offers a pro-business environment with job creation tax incentives, low tax rates, a developed infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and strong educational institutions focused on industry needs.
Pinellas County is building the future with innovative Life Science, Healthcare, Marine Science, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Technology industry leaders and the support of a strong existing supplier network. Nearly half of all life sciences companies in the Tampa Bay region are located in Pinellas. Corporations such as ConMed, Oscor, Microlumen, Omnicell and Apyx Medical anchor this industry sector and contribute to the vibrancy of the local workforce. These companies are involved in everything from the manufacturing of medical equipment and devices, surgical supplies, and various medical device components.
CoreRx, located in Largo, is a contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) with a focus on clinical phase drug product development, offering state of the art facilities to support their clients’ supply chain needs throughout the entire clinical trial process. CoreRx has been operating in Pinellas since 2013 and was recently acquired by NovaQuest Private Equity. The transaction aims to build out the company’s capabilities, adding technologies and increasing scale to allow CoreRX to enhance their service offerings.
Catalent Pharma Solutions, one of Pinellas County’s largest life science employers, recently enhanced their development capabilities by opening an additional Pilot Plant area. This expands on Catalent’s 453,000-square-foot facility in Pinellas Park, where the company provides softgel development and manufacturing services for a variety of prescription and over-the-counter products. The Pinellas Park facility is Catalent’s primary softgel development and manufacturing facility in North America. The site has the capacity of producing 18 billion capsules per year. The Pilot Plant expansion adds to that capability by providing more designated space in which to test a product’s ultimate manufacturability – where Catalent can help its customers find the best route to take something new from lab to market.
Jabil, one of Pinellas County’s largest employers and #119 on the Fortune 500 list, is headquartered in St. Petersburg. Jabil Healthcare division is the largest global provider of healthcare manufacturing solutions in the industry.
A unique cornerstone of the County and Tampa Bay area’s life science ecosystem is the Innovation District in downtown St. Petersburg. The district brings together St. Petersburg’s top tier healthcare providers with the largest marine and environmental sciences community in the Southeast United States. Major institutions in the district include Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Bayfront Health, and the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, as well as various federal and state agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), The Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO), and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Entrepreneurs and technology startups soon will have a new resource within the Innovation District—The ARK Innovation Center. While the team at the Tampa Bay Innovation Center has been leading the innovation and entrepreneurial community in Pinellas County for nearly 20 years, their new Center will be the first in Pinellas County purposely constructed for entrepreneurs and tech startups. Slated for completion in 2023, the 45,000-square-foot, two-story, state-of-the-art facility is being funded by both public and private sources, including ARK Investment Management LLC, newly headquartered in Downtown St. Pete.
Pinellas County’s top-rated colleges and universities such as The University of South Florida and St. Petersburg College provide firms with qualified graduates in a variety of majors. These include associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees and certificate programs in Medical Device Technology, Medical Quality Systems, Engineering Technology-Biomedical Systems, Regulatory Affairs and Orthotics and Prosthetics.
Pinellas Technical College offers students the ability to fulfill national workplace competencies in both business and industry, providing hands on training to its students. Certificate programs on various trades including CNC machining, CAD, surgical technologist, and practical nursing.
Statewide organizations such as the Pinellas-based Florida Medical Manufacturers’ Consortium (FMMC), BioFlorida and the Institute for the Commercialization of Florida Technology have a vested interest in expanding this vital sector and have taken a lead role in its promotion and growth.
Pinellas County will continue to support the Life Science and Medical Technology industries as it provides stability and growth for our local economy and regional labor market.
