Recession to recovery: Life sciences industry seeks stability, growth

Long sold as one of the state’s brightest economic hopes, Indiana’s life sciences industry has weathered the recession relatively well.

Total employment is up nearly 7 percent and major investment announcements are trickling in.

Signs of trouble loom, however.

Eli Lilly, arguably Indiana’s life sciences engine, continues to shed jobs. The state government’s direct investments into the industry’s smallest companies are down. And, perhaps most ominously, tighter capital markets threaten to starve the risky process of medical innovation.