When Standard & Works visited the Columbus headquarters of Andelyn Biosciences earlier this year, COO Cyrill Kellerhals told us Ohio rivaled Research Triangle Park as one of America’s leading life science hubs.
Bayer reached the same conclusion last week, putting $2.2 billion behind a new pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in New Albany, outside Columbus.
The modular campus will support manufacturing of cancer, cardiovascular and kidney disease treatments in two phases, collectively creating 600 permanent jobs paying over $100,000, and 1,500 construction jobs.
90% of workers hired are expected to be from Ohio, Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said. When we set up shop in a community, we chose that community. If we wanted people from someplace else, we would have gone there."
But for those following the emerging map of American pharmaceutical manufacturing, a top-tier company like Bayer landing in Ohio was not a surprise.
Ohio has built one of the most complete versions of the modern pharmaceutical ecosystem, and it offers a case study for any state or region looking to compete.
🧲 The Training Center
With pharmaceutical companies pledging over half a trillion dollars in new U.S. manufacturing over the past 2 years alone, the states pulling ahead are the ones building workforce capacity ahead of demand.
Houston opened a biotech training center at San Jacinto College after losing a $500 million Amgen plant to North Carolina in 2021 due to a lack of workforce.
Virginia spent years laying the groundwork before Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Merck arrived last fall, committing $120 million to establish a new center that will staff their $12.5 billion of manufacturing investment in the state. The center will train over 2,000 pharma manufacturing workers each year.
Ohio wrote its own version of this playbook.
In September 2025, JobsOhio committed $30 million to construct the Ohio Life Science Training Center that will feature state-of-the-art labs and simulated clean rooms. This March, the center’s partners announced it would be sited in the New Albany International Business Park – where Bayer will now be locating.
Ohio State, Columbus State, and Ohio Life Sciences are building the center’s curriculum in partnership with the region’s career technical centers, and the City of New Albany, the state and The New Albany Company are adding about $8 million.
The training center opens in summer 2027, four years before Bayer’s first production module comes online.
🍎 The Classroom
Many of the people who will run Bayer’s first Columbus production line in 2031 are in middle school today. Ohio’s pipeline already reaches them.
In January 2025, Ohio Life Sciences launched BioPathways, a K-12 program that equips teachers statewide with hands-on lessons and introduces students to life sciences careers, including many that do not require a college degree.
It’s more than marketing language: A BioPathways virtual field trip drew more than 2,200 sign-ups in its first year.
Last year, we learned about BioPathways from Ohio Life Sciences Vice President Bill Dunlevy, a former biopharma and medical devices executive who came out of retirement to help build Ohio’s industry:
“[Teachers] can now tell their kids an anecdote of what they’re studying on page 62 in their microbiology textbook – why it’s important, why you need to care about it, and how you’re actually gonna use this lesson when you go to work in this plant that’s right in your town.”
Where else this is working: Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation worked with the Bethlehem school district to create career exposure to life sciences starting in elementary school. Local leaders point to the region’s workforce pipeline as a decisive factor that landed Eli Lilly’s $3.5 billion injectables plant earlier this year.
🎓 The Credential
Andelyn, a gene therapy manufacturer that grew out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and sits on Ohio State land, hired more than 50 people for its headquarters in one year, most of them from those two institutions.
“This building is sitting on the Ohio State campus and land, and with that, we have a dedicated workforce already coming from OSU,” Kellerhals told us.
“Understanding how work in the clean room affects quality systems is something you get from working at feeder places like Ohio State, working at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.”
Other assets in Ohio’s ecosystem:
Columbus State Community College offers a 12-week life science program that prepares people with minimal biotech background for entry-level roles.
A cGMP fundamentals course Ohio Life Sciences introduced at Butler Tech filled every session in 2025.
Bayer CEO Bill Andrson also cited the Cleveland Clinic, with whom the company has partnered on clinical partnerships.
🧬 The Proof
Ohio already had a track record of supporting major life sciences companies, which helped put it in contention for Bayer:
Amgen opened its Ohio manufacturing operation in 2021 and added $900 million in April 2025, bringing its Ohio investment to $1.4 billion and 750 jobs, with CEO Robert Bradway citing the state’s “skilled workforce.”
Ohio has also built a strong base of contract manufacturers. Alongside Andelyn, Forge Biologics operates The Hearth in Grove City, a 200,000-square-foot facility that ranks among the world’s largest dedicated to AAV gene therapy manufacturing.
In July, Resilience and Lilly committed $750 million in West Chester, near Cincinnati, to produce Lilly’s KwikPen injectors, adding 400 jobs and bringing Resilience’s Ohio workforce to more than 1,400.
🏆 The Winner’s Circle
Bayer’s announcement builds on Ohio’s foundation. But it also cements where Ohio now sits on the U.S. pharmaceutical industry’s emerging map.
Bayer saisaysd its New Albany site helps form “a new U.S. based collaboration ecosystem” alongside the company’s operations in Berkeley, Cambridge, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Research Triangle Park, and San Diego, putting central Ohio in the company of the country’s most established life sciences hubs.
Governor Mike DeWine said the project “firmly solidifies Ohio’s place among global biomanufacturing leaders.”
🎬 Go Inside the Pipeline
Watch our Standard & Works episode “Inside the Pipeline: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing” that explores workforce strategies in Ohio, Houston, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to show how these regions are redrawing the nation’s pharmaceutical map.
