Home to one of the fastest growing bioindustry sectors in the country, Arizona is benefiting from almost 30 years of investment into developing an ecosystem that supports the discovery, development and delivery of life science innovations designed to improve the human condition.
Just as nature requires ecosystems that work together to sustain life, the life science industry, also known as the Biosciences, is built on symbiotic relationships that include science, business and a wide range of support infrastructures that bring these products and services to market. Dedicated researchers at Arizona universities and other highly specialized laboratories are where discovery happens. This is the beginning of a journey that includes product development, experimentation, clinical trials, regulatory validation, medical or market acceptance, and a complex distribution and payment structure that is unique to the United States.
Arizona’s bioindustry encompasses agriculture, industrial products, medicines, medical devices, diagnostic tests and health technologies that are used to benefit individual patients or to optimize how our healthcare systems work.
Based on 2023 data from TECONOMY Partners, Arizona’s bioscience industry (not including our hospitals) employed 40,399 Arizonans across 3,652 state business establishments, representing a rapid 24.6% increase in employment since 2019 and placing the state among the leaders in employment growth. The average wage in the bioscience industry was $102,161, which is 53% higher than the state’s private-sector average.
A key component in Arizona’s life science ecosystem, the Arizona Bioindustry Association is the only statewide organization exclusively focused on Arizona’s bioscience industry. AZBio membership of more than 300 organizations includes patient advocacy organizations, life science innovators, educators, healthcare partners and leading business organizations. AZBio member organizations employ more than 365,000 Arizonans working to advance innovation and to ensure that the value delivered from life-changing and life-saving innovation benefits people in Arizona and around the world.
Home to more than 65% of Arizona’s population, Greater Phoenix is home to one of the fastest-growing bioscience urban centers in the nation. In less than a decade, the region jumped from the 30th-largest medtech and biomanufacturing jobs market to 15th-largest in the U.S., while bioscience employment grew 66% — 2.5 times the national average.
The region’s largest employment sector, Healthcare Distribution, encompasses the logistics and supply chain process that moves medications, medical devices and consumables from manufacturers to hospitals, pharmacies and patients. It forms the economic backbone of the industry, where distributors take legal ownership of products, manage temperature-controlled warehousing and optimize deliveries.
The second largest employment sector is medical devices, with a heavy concentration on design and manufacturing led by global leaders that include BD, Dexcom, Medtronic, W.L. Gore & Associates and West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. These leaders in both design and advanced manufacturing are making devices that keep hearts beating, blood flowing, treat neurological conditions and administer life-sustaining medicines to the people who need them.
Next is Arizona’s diagnostic sector, led by Sonora Quest Laboratories. More than 3,500 Sonora Quest employees perform approximately 100 million tests annually. This test information allows patients and healthcare professionals to help design health strategies to maintain health and treat illnesses. Specialized diagnostics companies like Caris Life Sciences and Castle Biosciences focus on the oncology patient, while others like CND Life Sciences specialize in neurology.
Drug development and manufacturing by companies like Breakthru Medicine, BrightPath Labs, Nectero Therapeutics, ROIS CDMO and others are working to address unmet medical needs, solve critical drug shortages and more.
And it does not stop there. Health technologies based on traditional information technologies and artificial intelligence like AdviNow Medical, Life365 and MiiHealth are optimizing the patient/provider experience, delivering telemedicine solutions and more.
Arizona now ranks eighth nationally in clinical trial activity — ahead of many larger and more established bioscience regions — generating more than $1 billion annually in economic impact.
More than $33 billion of public and private funds have been invested to create the life science and healthcare ecosystem that exists in Arizona today. The return on investment is impressive. In 2016, the bioscience sector (not including hospitals) generated an impressive single-year economic impact of $23.16 billion. By 2023, economic impact from Arizona’s bioscience sector had grown to $43.64 billion in a single year.
As economic impact grows, so do the tax base and the overall economy of the state. That means more money for education, more money for roads, more money to make life better for people across Arizona.
Joan Koerber-Walker
President & CEO
Arizona Bioindustry Association, Inc.
Did You Know: AZBio has set a goal for Arizona’s life science sector to reach $77 billion in economic impact by 2033 when AZBio will celebrate 30 years of impact. Arizona can reach this goal – or exceed it – if our community comes together to make it happen. We invite everyone to join us!
To learn more about the Biosciences in Arizona and Greater Phoenix, visit AZBio.org for more information.
Meet the leaders who are driving health innovation forward faster at the 10th annual Arizona Bioscience Week events in Phoenix, October 5–9, 2026. Learn more at AZBio.org/azbw2026.
