Biotech is booming in Texas, BioSpace reports. The Lone Star State has seen $1.3 billion invested in 161 biotech and medical device deals there between 2008 and 2013. Additionally, BioSpace notes that Texas' "tax-friendly climate and pro-business environment" is also luring large firms to open satellite offices there.
At the same time, Texas is home to a number of medical professionals and schools that award biotech-related degrees, meaning there are a number of skilled workers in the state. Companies are opening new facilities all over the state including data centers, BioSpace adds, and the state is opening two new medical schools
"In the past 100 years, the [Texas] economy has repeatedly reinvented itself to answer the needs of one emerging industry after another: cotton, oil, energy, and medicine are examples," John Mendelsohn, the former president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, says. "These transitions have not been easy, but each new industry has generated tremendous economic development in Houston. The biotech revolution will do the same."