While Boston, San Francisco, and Research Triangle Park have long dominated the medtech and life sciences landscape, a new competitor is rapidly gaining ground.
The Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania is leveraging its strategic location, manufacturing heritage, and innovative workforce development programs to attract major industry players—most notably Eli Lilly's historic $3.5 billion investment announced in 2024.
Situated within a day's drive of a third of the U.S. population and neighboring the Northeast life sciences super cluster that stretches from Boston to Washington, D.C., the Lehigh Valley offers something traditional hubs often cannot: a deep manufacturing legacy, access to nearly 2 million workers within an hour's commute, a significantly lower cost of living, and nimble educational institutions ready to customize training programs for industry needs.
The region's transformation from steel town to life sciences hub didn't happen by accident. It's the result of strategic partnerships between economic development leaders, educational institutions, state government, and industry—creating an ecosystem where companies like B. Braun, OraSure Technologies, Olympus, and now Eli Lilly can thrive.
We sat down with Karianne Gelinas, Vice President of Talent Strategies at the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, to discuss how the region won one of the largest pharmaceutical investments in recent history, how they're preparing the workforce to support it, and what makes the Lehigh Valley an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional medtech hubs.
Eli Lilly recently announced a $3.5 billion investment and 850 jobs—what specific workforce development initiatives did the Lehigh Valley put in place to attract this historic investment, and how are you preparing to fill these positions?
Gelinas:
It's really exciting to be able to answer this question and say we won it. One of the most important factors for Eli Lilly was workforce. Workforce tends to be a top three priority for the majority of employers, if not every single employer we speak to when considering moving to a state or a region. There are a couple of things worth noting. It's also really important to mention our location. We're located within a third of a day's drive from the Northeast population, so companies want to come here because they know they can make and move product to consumer markets. We also have access to almost 2 million people within a one-hour commute. We're a great place to land in terms of location. For Eli Lilly, it was even more attractive because we're next to that Northeast life sciences super cluster, which spans from Boston to D.C. J&J, Merck, and GSK are all within one or two hours' drive. There are all of these ecosystem components that are really supportive of having a location in the Lehigh Valley. I also want to note that of critical importance for this project was a partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition to workforce, Eli Lilly was concerned about speed to market. They're producing products that they need to get out quickly. If there's new development going on, that needs to be completed and put through for approvals, and due to demand they're looking to get product online as quickly as possible.
Between the Commonwealth's support in cutting red tape and helping to move processes quickly, that was of critical importance when it came to landing Lilly. Many states put out large incentive packages for companies like this with significant dollars, and Pennsylvania is in the game because of the Commonwealth's support.
Back to workforce—we looked really carefully at the data and said, here are the occupations Lilly is looking to fill. What do we have within the market, or nearby, in terms of people who are already working in these occupations? We found that about 215,000 people within an hour's commute of the Lilly site were already working or employed in occupations that Lilly was looking to hire. We knew we had a broad base and a pool to work from. We also know that we have an incredible educational ecosystem here in the Lehigh Valley, and within an hour and a half drive going down to Philadelphia. We have several colleges, universities, and technical schools that are educating over 50,000 students. We also have great schools like the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel that are producing top engineers, which was also very important to Lilly. Building on that, our schools have an existing manufacturing program preparing adults and secondary students for jobs in manufacturing, as well as offering customized coursework and curriculum for the needs of employers and building up those partnerships. That's something we do here frequently in the Lehigh Valley. Looking at specific needs that are critical, we realized we have a great talent pool and nimble institutions, and Lilly had a large volume need for aseptic technicians and operators coming into the market. Meeting this specific requirement was something we wanted to make sure we would support, and so Lehigh Carbon Community College came into the picture and renovated and restructured an area within their college to be used as a biotech center. They're working closely with Lilly to have the correct curriculum in place and to purchase the right equipment needed in a facility like Lilly's. They're building out that facility specifically for Lilly's needs. Their biotech center is something that will also be able to be used by other students and manufacturers. It's a broad-based center, although they're currently really focusing on supporting those aseptic technician and operator roles because of the volume of people Lilly will need in the next two to three years.
Your pitch mentioned apprenticeship programs supporting advanced manufacturing and life sciences—can you describe how these programs are structured, which educational institutions and employers are involved, and what the typical career pathway looks like for participants?
Gelinas:
In 2021, we started discussions with the initial company who was really the leader in this apprenticeship conversation, which was B. Braun. They're a German-based company with U.S. headquarters here in the Lehigh Valley. Their interest was in bringing over an apprenticeship model similar to what they have in Germany and other global locations, and it's consortium-based. So we have a group of employers with similar roles that they need to fill and similar training needs, and they can convene as a consortium. Being able to work together with similar needs and understanding what those needs are is helpful, as well as being able to communicate to the community that there are in-demand roles, here are the skills you need to fill them, and really marketing and communicating to the community that these are great careers with opportunities ahead if they're trained for those jobs. Another piece is being able to share that information in a consortium out to schools so they can develop curriculum that's customized to meet their needs, and they can do it with players at the table who are validating that this is really a need. Schools can understand that there will be a volume of people needed in these roles and this is really important to build out programming and recruit people into these types of courses and ultimately to be prepared for these roles.
Finally, working in a consortium allows them to work toward and apply for grants, whether state, federal, or any other type. Doing it as a group makes them a much more appealing recipient of such a grant, and that has been really supportive of the Industrial Training and Education Consortium here. It has really helped build out the programming and support the apprentices who are in the program itself. Some other manufacturers in addition to B. Braun include Heidelberg Materials, OraSure Technologies, and Exalta. A number of other employers are interested as well. They now have five apprenticeship programs that are approved by the state of Pennsylvania, so that's another piece that has been really valuable to these consortiums in terms of getting apprenticeships registered through the Commonwealth. It's a pretty big lift when it's just an individual employer, as that requires a lot of back and forth with the state. The specific apprenticeship programs we feel are the most interesting to Lilly are a chemistry lab tech apprenticeship, as well as a quality control program. Those have alignment with Lilly's goals. And then underneath those apprenticeships we now have some of our institutions and high schools that are building on the apprenticeships, so we're getting people interested and involved at younger and younger ages, and we're giving them experience and exploration of what goes on in these roles. They get to use equipment as well, as a first taste of what that could look like as a career. Our first pre-apprenticeship program at a local high school finished out last year with their first classes, and they graduated about 40 students. One of them was even hired by B. Braun, and we're following up with him to see how that thread has supported someone as young as 17 to now have his first job at B. Braun.
What are the biggest talent gaps or skill shortages you're seeing in the medtech and life sciences sectors in the Lehigh Valley, and how are you working with educational partners like Lehigh Carbon Community College to address them?
Gelinas:
Some of the main roles Lilly is looking to hire here will be those aseptic technicians. Those are the roles we're looking to build out with that biotech center at Lehigh Carbon Community College, as well as offering support through another community college that's just south of us. Several of our local community colleges have established programs for preparing aseptic technicians and quality control technicians for pharmaceutical jobs. So there's that existing programming, as well as new programming that's just being built. In order to support the filling of those programs, specifically at Lehigh Carbon Community College, we're looking to have our K-12 systems and our community at large understand what these roles are and what it looks like to work in a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility on a daily basis. What does it look like day to day to be an aseptic technician, and what are the opportunities within Lilly or any other medtech company? Another piece of closing that shortage is really community education. We haven't had such a large pharmaceutical company land in our community before, so part of it is sharing the information out with the community at large. That way if there are adults out there looking to shift careers, or students in middle or high school, our community can see what those jobs at Lilly are like and how to get there.
Beyond workforce, what other factors make the Lehigh Valley competitive for medtech and life sciences companies compared to traditional hubs like Boston, San Francisco, or Research Triangle Park?
Gelinas:
I think a part of it is simply our manufacturing heritage. Manufacturing is our largest contributor to our gross regional product. Manufacturing is very much alive in the Lehigh Valley. You have legacy companies like Mack Trucks, and so many manufacturers here that are household names worldwide. For a company like Lilly, you're creating and producing these products, so we make a lot of sense with that manufacturing legacy. Manufacturing is also our second-largest employing job sector. Our community understands what it is. We're supportive of occupations and new jobs that are evolving and changing, as does everything with technology. That's part of who we are as a community. Those are really important factors in terms of landing a major pharmaceutical manufacturer here in the Lehigh Valley. Also, being amidst that life sciences super cluster—we have a nice cluster of companies that are already here. Lilly is not the first or only life sciences company in the valley, so they're among company peers that have already found their lane.
Are there specific medtech subsectors—such as medical devices, diagnostics, digital health, or biomanufacturing—where the Lehigh Valley has particular strengths or is actively trying to build clusters?
Gelinas:
When we talk about life sciences in the Lehigh Valley, we're specifically focused on our medical devices subsector. We have a significant number of medical device companies located here. That list includes B. Braun, who is one of our biggest manufacturers, OraSure, who produces self-testing diagnostic tests, Olympus, who makes scopes, and Exalta, which has been here for quite some time creating implants for surgery. We have this medical device group that has already been thriving, and they have that understanding of what these jobs are, what needs to be done in a clean room, what safety and security protocols need to exist, so that has been our current cluster.
Looking ahead 3-5 years, what does success look like for the Lehigh Valley as a medtech and life sciences hub, and what metrics are you tracking to measure progress—jobs created, companies attracted, capital investment, or something else?
Gelinas:
With something like Lilly, we're looking at its impact, as well as our continued growth across the Lehigh Valley. We're always tracking job growth and how many new jobs are created by companies that are coming here and staying here. We're always counting how many companies have come. We have Lilly coming into our market, and they'll be followed by Chobani as well. We're paying attention to new companies coming in, as well as how they're investing in our region. In addition to the harder, concrete data points, we want to ensure that our community has access to family-sustaining wages. It's really important to us that these companies are bringing and providing our community with jobs that enable us to thrive and grow. Specifically with that, and this goes across the board with rapid changes in AI, another marker of success in the next three to five years is our community better understanding what STEM careers are. Understanding what it looks like to work in a company that makes pharmaceuticals or surgical implants. Really growing that STEM muscle across our schools, whether K-12 or colleges and universities—we know that our STEM career job growth is at a higher rate than any other jobs. We know STEM fields are where jobs are. A solid and increasing community understanding of the importance of preparing people for STEM careers is a marker of success as well.
Once you attract medtech talent to the region, what strategies are you using to retain them, and how does the Lehigh Valley's quality of life, cost of living, and career advancement opportunities compare to larger metro areas?
Gelinas:
We're not New York, or Philadelphia, or a big urban center. We're a mix of city to suburban to rural farmland. In the Lehigh Valley, you can have it all. People can live downtown, or in a suburban or rural community. There's something for everyone when considering the Lehigh Valley. Between all of those assets—our location, the cost of living being lower, the amenities and family-friendly orientation—we've attracted young people. We've attracted 18 to 34 year olds at twice the national rate. Young people are coming, and they're staying. It really has to do with that diversity of opportunity, both in where you live and quality of life, but also in career and advancement opportunities. Cost of living is really important, so that's something that, again, in comparison to other larger centers like New York, we do really well on. We compete really well when it comes to attracting people and having them stay.
