TUE AM News: Biohealth industry had $22B impact in Wisconsin last year, report shows; Modine opens manufacturing facility in Canada

October 29, 2024

— Wisconsin’s biohealth industry had an estimated $22 billion direct economic impact in the state last year, according to BioForward Wisconsin’s latest report.

The Madison-based group recently published its “Wisconsin Biohealth Industry Landscape and Economic Impact Report,” detailing job growth in the sector and its contribution to the state economy. The release coincides with the Wisconsin Biohealth Summit, being held in Madison this week.

In addition to the direct economic impact, the report highlights $37.7 billion in total economic impact in the state, combining direct, indirect and induced sources.

The biohealth industry supports more than 141,000 jobs across the state from these broad impacts, and industry employers directly employed more than 58,000 people in 2023, according to the report. That direct employment figure has grown by 25% since 2018.

Report authors are touting the impact of workers in the industry, noting the value added per worker in biohealth was $270,000 in 2023 — well above the comparable figure for the overall state economy, which was $131,000 for the year.

Digital health is the largest subsector in the state’s biohealth industry, employing about 16,000 people last year. The report shows a 34% growth rate in this figure since 2018, and highlights the dominant role of Verona-based Epic Systems in this area. The company alone reportedly employed about 13,000 people last year.

Meanwhile, biomedical research and testing in Wisconsin has seen its employment grow 52% since 2018, reaching just over 13,000 jobs last year. Report authors point to “extremely strong gains” in medical laboratories, which have doubled their employment over this five-year period.

And though medical device and equipment manufacturers employ a similar number of people in Wisconsin — about 12,000 last year — this subsector posted a 1% decline since 2018. Job gains across surgical appliances and supplies as well as medical instruments and dental equipment were balanced by net losses in irradiation device manufacturing, dental labs and electromedical equipment, the report shows. The state’s job losses are contrasted by 6.9% job growth nationally.

Biohealth distribution firms have boosted employment by 15.3% to just under 11,000 since 2018, in line with the national growth rate for these businesses.

And pharmaceutical manufacturers — the state’s smallest biohealth subsector — had a 37.5% employment growth since 2018, reaching nearly 6,800 jobs last year. That’s double the percentage gain at the national level, 17.9%.

The biohealth industry tends to pay more than other industries, with the average wages of nearly $104,000 in 2023 exceeding the average for all Wisconsin industries, which was about $61,000 for the year.

Along with these and other figures showing the strength of the biohealth industry in Wisconsin, the report spotlights a number of expansions and other “major investments” being made by some of the state’s top biohealth companies. These include Promega, Accuray, SHINE Technologies, GE HealthCare, Invenra and others.

The report also includes geographic details for biohealth activities in the state, which are largely clustered in the greater Madison and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. It notes the Madison region is more than twice as concentrated in biohealth compared to the national average, calling the city a “national leader” in the biohealth industry. Total biohealth employment there was 28,711 last year.

Milwaukee’s biohealth industry, by comparison, is slightly more concentrated in the sector compared to the national average and has “outsized” representation of medical device manufacturing and biohealth distribution. Its biohealth employment reached 16,822 in 2023.

Green Bay, while having a much smaller biohealth footprint, has seen “double-digit job gains” in recent years and reached 1,860 jobs last year.

See more in the report.

— Modine has opened a new facility in Canada that will manufacture cooling systems for data centers.

The Racine-based company yesterday announced details for the 250,000-square-foot facility in Calgary, which is meant to help Modine meet rising demand for its Airedale cooling equipment in the data center industry.

The announcement comes after Modine in February acquired Canadian business Scott Springfield Manufacturing and broke ground on a third manufacturing facility catering to “hyperscale” data center customers. These large data centers can cover millions of square feet, according to an overview from IBM.

Modine now has a global manufacturing network with locations in Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom, the release shows.

Eric McGinnis, president of climate solutions for the company, says the new Calgary facility will support Modine’s global expansion strategy. The first units produced there are expected to be delivered later this year.

“Following the recent announcement of the opening of our facility in Bradford, UK, we are well-positioned to serve data center customers worldwide,” McGinnis said in a statement.

See the release and watch a video of the facility being prepared to open.

— A railway infrastructure project in Milwaukee is getting nearly $73 million in federal funding, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin announced.

The Madison Dem yesterday rolled out the funding for the Muskego Yard Bypass Project, which will update and reconfigure rail and yard facilities along the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad corridor. It aims to prepare the corridor for additional trips between Milwaukee and Chicago by the Amtrak Hiawatha Service, according to an overview from the state Department of Transportation.

The project will boost yard capacity and add more through-tracks, while removing most of the freight traffic moving through the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, reduce travel times for freight trains and more, DOT says. It will also replace or improve multiple bridges.

DOT Secretary Kristina Boardman says “the future of rail in Wisconsin” hinges on the project’s success.

“Thanks to this federal investment, we’ll be able to further support freight and passenger rail services throughout Wisconsin and consider expansion of services in additional corridors,” she said in a statement.

See the release.

— State officials have announced $1.5 million in funding for the village of DeForest, supporting a road construction project linked to a new Kwik Trip distribution center.

A release from Gov. Tony Evers and the state Department of Transportation says the Transportation Economic Assistance grant will support 398 jobs through the project.

DeForest Village President Jane Cahill Wolfgram says Kwik Trip’s project will “bring valuable jobs to the region and spur further economic development, some of the key goals of the TEA grant program.”

The gas station operator’s distribution center project is the second of its kind in Wisconsin, after the first was built in La Crosse. According to the release, it will help reduce distribution costs, lower prices for customers and support the La Crosse center with production and delivery.

See the release.

— UW Health’s new Eastpark Medical Center has begun taking patients, the health system announced.

As the latest location for the UW Health Carbone Cancer Center, the specialty care site will offer cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and infusion therapy as well as surgical oncology, the release shows.

The medical center will also offer a cancer symptom management clinic to help patients experiencing side effects from cancer therapy.

Dr. Lee Wilke, senior medical director of clinical cancer services for UW Health, says the clinic “will enable patients to get treated for symptoms in the same location as their cancer care team and help them potentially avoid an urgent care or emergency room visit.”

Starting in early 2026, Eastpark will also provide proton therapy, a precision treatment option for tumors located near “vital organs and tissues” that can avoid damaging them. Once operational, the facility will be one of the only upright proton therapy centers in the world, UW Health says.

See the release.

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

— Dem U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin says she’s prepared to vote to eliminate the filibuster in order to codify Roe v. Wade but would rather work to reform it instead.

Baldwin’s GOP challenger, Eric Hovde, reaffirmed he doesn’t “believe in a national abortion ban” and that “a woman should have a right to choose early on in their pregnancy.” Both were featured on WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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