The Oregon Business Council (OBC) and Oregon Life Sciences today announced the launch of the Oregon Life Sciences Competitiveness Task Force, a statewide initiative to define how Oregon will compete, win market share and scale high-wage job growth in life sciences.
The Task Force held its inaugural meeting on April 7, 2026 in Portland, bringing together more than 30 leaders from industry, higher education, economic development, and local and state government to align on a focused growth strategy and near-term actions to drive results.
The Task Force is co-chaired by Oregon State Representative Hai Pham, United States Senator Ron Wyden, and Tim Layton of Genentech, and is organized in partnership with the Oregon Business Council and Oregon Life Sciences. Initial recommendations are expected by late summer 2026, with a final report to follow in Fall 2026 outlining priority investments and policy actions.
Task Force Scope and Structure
The Oregon Life Sciences Competitiveness Task Force will deliver a set of prioritized, actionable recommendations to accelerate industry growth and improve Oregon’s competitive position.
These recommendations will cover five focus areas:
- building a best-in-class innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem;
- developing a robust talent and workforce pipeline;
- identifying aligned tax and incentive policy;
- ensuring adequate industrial land, wet lab space, and energy infrastructure; and,
- addressing transportation and product export challenges facing Oregon life sciences firms.
A distinguishing feature of the Task Force’s approach is a commitment to prioritizing recommendations under different resource scenarios — high, medium, and low — to ensure the state can act quickly regardless of budget conditions. This approach was informed by OBC’s earlier work on Oregon’s Semiconductor Competitiveness Task Force, which produced recommendations that guided more than $500 million in state investment.
The Task Force will operate through four working subcommittees and will hold additional full Task Force meetings through July 2026. The recommendations are intended to directly inform the Governor’s Prosperity Council and the 2027 legislative session.
“Oregon’s life sciences community has the talent, the research institutions, and the entrepreneurial drive to compete with any region in the country. This Task Force is the right vehicle to translate those assets into jobs and investment — and I am honored to help lead it.” — Senator Ron Wyden, Task Force Co-Chair
“The industry’s momentum is real. The Task Force accelerates the momentum with a statewide focused strategy.” — Liisa Bozinovic, Executive Director, Oregon Life Sciences
Broad Coalition of Task Force Members
The Task Force brings together one of the most senior and cross-sector groups ever assembled around Oregon’s economic development agenda with a mandate to move quickly from strategy to execution. Members include CEOs and senior executives from companies representing the full spectrum of Oregon’s life sciences industry, from global biopharmaceutical manufacturers to homegrown startups with diverse origins and growth pathways.
The group is joined by the presidents of the University of Oregon, Portland State University, and OHSU; the Vice President for Research at Oregon State University; mayors from four Oregon cities; state and federal legislators; and leaders from Oregon’s semiconductor industry who are helping bridge the two sectors. Economic development organizations from across the state, including Business Oregon and Greater Portland Inc, round out a coalition designed to turn strategy into action at every level of government and industry.
Member organizations include Genentech, Merck, Twist Bioscience, Serán Bioscience, Araceli Biosciences, Penderia Technologies, the Port of Portland, Portland Seed Fund, OTRADI, ONAMI, Lane County, and the cities of Portland, Eugene, Hillsboro, Bend, and Philomath, among others.
A Strategic Opportunity for Oregon
Despite 40 percent job growth over the past decade, Oregon remains under-concentrated in life sciences relative to other states — a gap the Task Force is designed to close.
According to the Oregon Bioscience Association’s 2025 Economic Impact Report, Oregon’s life sciences industry directly employs nearly 28,000 workers across approximately 2,000 business establishments, generating $11.5 billion in economic activity and $5.6 billion in exports annually. With average wages exceeding $100,000, more than 50 percent above the statewide private sector average, the industry also generates $455 million in state and local tax revenues each year. When accounting for supply-chain and consumer spending effects, life sciences supports nearly 75,000 total jobs and $21.2 billion in total economic activity statewide.
The industry nationally is projected to grow significantly over the next decade, and Oregon is well-positioned to capture a meaningful share of that growth. The Task Force will identify the specific niches and market segments where Oregon can compete and win and develop targeted recommendations to get there.
“Oregon has all the ingredients to be a national leader in life sciences – the talent, the entrepreneurial spirit, the research capability, and the anchor institutions. This Task Force is about turning that potential into a concrete plan and making sure Oregon is ready for opportunity and growth.” — Representative Hai Pham, Task Force Co-Chair
Building on Oregon’s Distinctive Strengths
Oregon enters this effort with a set of distinctive assets that set it apart from other states pursuing life sciences growth:
University of Oregon’s Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Impact. With the recent opening of its second 185,000 square foot building, the Knight Campus has doubled its capacity for research, education, and innovation. World-class bioengineers and scientists are translating scientific discoveries into real-world applications spanning medical devices, regenerative medicine, biomedical data science, neuroengineering, biomaterials, and synthetic biology — while an innovative approach to technical training, professional development, and entrepreneurship has catalyzed more than a dozen startups and is fueling Oregon’s life sciences economy.
Oregon Health & Science University and the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. One of a small number of NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the country, the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute anchors Oregon’s oncology ecosystem and supports clinical trials, industry partnerships and advanced manufacturing opportunities. Beyond cancer, OHSU’s life sciences strength lies in translating leading research in neuroscience, structural biology and biochemistry, regenerative and genetic therapies, infectious disease and biomedical engineering into industry‑ready innovations through scalable platforms, partnerships and commercialization pathways that move discoveries from lab to market. OHSU spins out four to five new companies each year, and since 2018 has generated 32 startups that have raised $2 billion in equity financing.
Oregon State University. A convergence engine for Oregon’s life sciences sector, OSU integrates biology, engineering, and data science to move discoveries from research to real-world impact — with over $213M in life sciences-related research expenditures in FY25, 195+ startups launched, and $1.98B in capital raised. When it opens next year, the $200 million Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex will bring one of the nation’s most powerful university supercomputers to the Corvallis campus, accelerating AI-enabled research, industry collaboration, and translation in a 143,000 sq ft facility.
A world-class semiconductor ecosystem. Oregon’s globally significant concentration of semiconductor talent, suppliers, and manufacturing infrastructure creates a powerful and largely untapped bridge to life sciences. Oregon is a hotspot for biotechnologists at nearly 2.5 times the national average in concentration, and workers move fluidly between the two industries — a unique competitive advantage.
An established and growing industry base. From Genentech’s large-scale gene therapy manufacturing facility in Hillsboro to a growing network of university-origin startups, Oregon has a diverse base of life sciences employers that creates immediate opportunities for cluster expansion and supply chain development, reflecting the cross-sector innovation that defines Oregon’s ecosystem. This includes a growing CDMO presence across the state and a specialized hub in Bend, Oregon, home to globally recognized, world-class companies focused on advanced spray dry technology, a critical and highly specialized capability in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing that further strengthens Oregon’s position in high-value production.
“Genentech has pioneered what’s possible in the biotechnology industry for fifty years, and we have been a proud part of Oregon’s life sciences community for nearly two decades. We are excited to help lead this effort to build on Oregon’s extraordinary assets and make the state a destination of choice for life sciences investment and innovation.” — Tim Layton, Government Affairs, Genentech, Task Force Co-Chair
The Oregon Life Sciences Competitiveness Task Force will continue to convene over the coming months and deliver a final report with prioritized recommendations by late summer 2026.
About the Organizers
The Oregon Business Council is a nonpartisan CEO roundtable that works to mobilize business leaders to strengthen Oregon’s economy and quality of life. OBC has led similar sector competitiveness efforts for Oregon’s semiconductor and clean tech industries.
Oregon Life Sciences (formerly Oregon Bioscience Association) is a nonprofit trade association, founded in 1989, that drives the growth and impact of the life sciences sector across Oregon and Southwest Washington. Anchored in advocacy, career development, insights and education, and collaboration, Oregon Life Sciences offers strategic, educational, and economic value tailored to organizations and professionals in biotech, pharma, medtech, diagnostics, and related sectors. Serving a diverse community, from startups and labs to academic institutions and multinationals, the association offers members access to policy influence, business support, networking, industry intelligence, workforce programs, and ecosystem building. Its leadership helped elevate the region’s bioscience footprint to $21.2 billion in output and nearly 75,000 jobs, while championing growth and economic resilience throughout the state.
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