Pittsburgh: A Top Emerging Healthcare and Life Sciences Ecosystem

UPMC, a life sciences leader in Pittsburgh, is spending $2 billion to develop three new hospitals, the UPMC Heart and Transplant Hospital (620 beds, 1 million SF) on UPMC Presbyterian’s campus; UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital (300,000 SF) will be located at UPMC Mercy; and the UPMC Hillman Cancer Hospital.

Infrastructure & Facilities Improvement Program grant helped retain 1,833 retained jobs at Washington Hospital.

Excela Health hired 40 employees at its call center operation in Hempfield, including 10 with clinical experience to help patients find the appropriate provider.

Announced it’s moving its regional HQ to Bakery Square, occupying 200,000 SF of office real estate. Philips Sleep & Respiratory Care specializes in products that improve respiratory function, including products for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea like CPAP and BiPAP machines.

Maitri Medicinals LLC, which recently doubled its staff to 35 and adding another 25 to 35 by early 2020, is building out two medical marijuana dispensaries, relocating its corporate offices to East Liberty and plans to start growing cannabis in a warehouse in O’Hara Township in the near future.

Pantherx Specialty Pharmacy, one of the fastest-growing private companies in the Pittsburgh region, has 200 employees and $1 billion in revenue in 2019, expanded into a 50,000 SF facility in Moon to focus on precision medicine and orphan drugs, life-saving medicines that treat rare diseases.

Planned veteran’s wellness center and veteran’s services office.

New outpatient center, $13.8 million, 24,300 SF facility that will provide primary, specialty and urgent care services.

The outpatient facility will be a shoulder-to-hand orthopedic center and medical office totaling 47,432 SF.

Broke ground on a $75 million to $100 million, 100,000 SF pharmaceutical manufacturing facility near Pittsburgh International Airport that will double the biotech firm’s employee base to 100,000 SF on International Drive.

Announced expansion of its Pittsburgh operations, putting the company’s office presence at 216,000 SF and ramping up to 1,500+ staff in the region. ConnectiveRx is a leading services company that works with biopharma manufacturers to commercialize and maximize the benefits of specialty and branded medications.

Expanding its operations to 202,817 SF of space at Clinton Commerce Park near the Pittsburgh International Airport. Haemonetics, a hematologic medical device and supply company, plans to move into the building in the first quarter of 2021.

West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Parallel, via Goodblend, is collaborating with Pitt to test the company’s cannabis formulations in the treatment of sickle cell disease and other issues. Pitt will receive $3 million as part of the deal in unrestricted grants to investigate the efficacy and safety of medical cannabis.

*In July 2023, Goodblend Pennsyvlania announced it’s closing its operations in Pennsyvlania

Launched AlphaLab Health in collaboration with Innovation Works. AlphaLab Health is an incubator that accelerates scientific, clinical and market validation for early-stage healthcare and life science technology companies.

PurePenn, a cultivation and production company, produces pharmaceutical-grade medical marijuana products. PurePenn currently operates a 35,000 SF cultivation and processing facility in McKeesport, which is undergoing expansion to 90,000 SF and expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2021.

Bayer announced the building of a new distribution center in Saxonburg, Butler County, to service its three medical device manufacturing plants in the region. The 220,000 SF distribution facility will be managed and staffed by FedEx Supply Chain, a third-party provider of warehousing and fulfillment operations. Employment at the new center is expected to grow to 40.

Looking to hire 25 manufacturing workers this quarter and currently converting office space for manufacturing to accommodate increased production. Its Parks Township operation — with 245 employees — focuses on several products, including a device to extract leads from pacemakers, blood flow monitors and in vitro pipettes.

Secured $35 million in series B funding and is establishing a physical HQ at Life X. Peptilogics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that designs and develops novel peptide therapeutics for patients with serious and life-threatening diseases.

A London-based portfolio medical technology company, Smith+Nephew opened a new facility in Pittsburgh focused on robotics technology, R&D and surgical training – advancing innovation in orthopaedic surgery.

Chosen to be in the second cohort of startup companies in the AlphaLab Health accelerator program, Parcel Health aims to solve global healthcare industry problems with innovative product and technology solutions. Its Phill Box is the first fully recyclable and compostable medication packaging to reach pharmacies.

Opened a new state-of-the-art research facility that will serve as the innovation hub for AlphaLab Health. The facility is a 10,000 SF open-concept space fully equipped with advanced technologies and facilities, including wet and dry labs.

Signed a long-term lease at Nova Place for more than 44,000 SF of space that will combine wet lab space and office. This will enable Castle to expand the local operations of Cernostics Inc., a startup whose TissueCypher technology uses artificial intelligence to analyze tissue biopsies for esophageal cancer.

Pitt is partnering with ElevateBio under a 30-year agreement that is designed to bring the research and manufacturing of cutting-edge, life-giving treatments to Hazlewood Green. ElevateBio will build an 80,000 SF facility known as BaseCamp that will be involved in the research, development and manufacturing of cell and gene therapeutics and technologies, including gene editing.

AbsoluteCare is opening a Comprehensive Care Center in Pittsburgh that will have up to 80 new jobs. AbsoluteCare offers primary care services in a concierge model for people with extensive health needs and also includes urgent care, lab, radiology, infusion, pharmacy, nutritional counseling and behavioral health services.

Announced plans to begin constructing a 31,000 SF inpatient behavioral health center near the end of 2023. The new inpatient mental health facility would cost approximately $14 million and would comprise 44 beds for adolescent, adult and geriatric patients.

Bayer is expanding its digital solutions unit (hiring between 75-100 positions) and other operations in Pittsburgh as the company increases its businesses in health care. Bayer’s Pittsburgh operations are its fourth-largest site in the U.S., as well as its global headquarters for device research and development as well as holding support for Bayer radiology and women’s health care medical devices, digital solutions and commercial operations. It has three manufacturing sites in the region: O’Hara, Saxonburg and Indianola.

This life sciences company is developing a drug designed to treat cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and recently raised $7 million in funding. It also recently received FDA approval to begin the next phase of its clinical trial to treat CRS in lymphoma patients receiving CAR T-cell therapy.