Biotech companies in Houston: a medical center with a small, lean company base

This report is for job seekers, investors, partners and suppliers looking at Houston's biotech companies. The Census metro covers Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Galveston, Brazoria and four smaller counties, so it includes The Woodlands, Sugar Land and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

How many biotech companies are in Houston

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX Metro Area (CBSA 26420), NAICS 541714 (biotech research and development) and 325414 (biological product manufacturing):

The Census Bureau published the missing totals but flagged them as high-noise: its confidentiality noise moved them by 5% or more. The six biologics plants are what trigger the flag. The 92 R&D labs are published cleanly: 877 employees and $155.7 million of payroll. Remember that CBP counts places with a payroll, not firms.

Tiny labs

The classes from 100 up aren't published; 2 is the total less the published cells. The combined size table is withheld because the manufacturing cells are suppressed. That's an average of fewer than 10 employees per lab, against about 46 in San Diego and 50 in Boston (our calculations), and it matches the filings below: Houston biotechs run lean and contract out.

What the codes miss

The two Census codes cover biotech labs and biologics plants. They leave out the hospitals and medical schools where most of Houston's research happens, drug discovery labs coded 541715, diagnostics makers, contract research and testing labs (541380), and companies whose only Houston presence is an office. A company incubated inside a hospital building may be counted under the hospital, or not at all.

The listed companies

SEC EDGAR lists 10 listed companies with a Houston-metro business address, all in SIC 2834 (pharmaceutical preparations); none are in 2836 or 8731. Nine filed a 10-K for 2025:

Cash is cash and cash equivalents, plus short-term investments where marked (our sum). Employees as of 31 December 2025 unless dated; blank where we didn't take a figure. The tenth company, Bio-Path Holdings of Bellaire, had filed only its 2024 10-K as of 30 October 2026.

The nine spent $158.3 million on R&D between them (our sum). Several report less cash than a year of R&D at their 2025 rate, so financing news moves their hiring and buying more than anything else. A company with five employees and $11.8 million of R&D buys nearly all of its science from outside.

The Texas Medical Center and NIH

NIH RePORTER shows $951.1 million of NIH awards to 35 organizations in the Houston metro in fiscal 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), across 1,666 projects:

Companies received 37 awards worth $27.3 million, 36 of them small-business (SBIR or STTR) grants. Marker Therapeutics ($3.4 million), CellChorus ($3.0 million) and March Biosciences ($2.1 million) received the most.

The Texas Medical Center calls itself the world's largest medical complex, with more than 120,000 employees and about 10 million patient encounters a year. Its innovation arm runs Therapeutic Labs and hosts JLABS @ TMC, the shared lab spaces where many Houston startups begin.

Cell therapy and biologics sites

FDA keeps two registries that matter here: one for cell and tissue establishments, and the drug establishment file, where makers of other biologics register. Neither covers trial-only production.

• Cell and tissue registry: 12 Houston establishments are registered for blood stem cell or peripheral blood mononuclear cell products, including MD Anderson Cancer Center and its cord blood bank, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston Methodist, Baylor St. Luke's, the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and Cryoport Systems.
• Drug establishment registry: 64 metro registrations, 45 with manufacturing operations. Lonza Houston is registered for analysis, active ingredient manufacture, manufacture, labeling and packaging.

Where to look

1. BioHouston, founded in 2000, runs events and a members' jobs board.
2. The Texas Medical Center's innovation programs list its lab spaces and partner programs.
3. NIH RePORTER, searched by Baylor, MD Anderson or UTHealth investigator, shows the science that becomes Houston's next startups.

Selling to Houston biotechs

Worked example: a clinical trial site services firm

Illustrative example. The firm, study counts and fees are invented; the companies and institutions come from the filings and NIH data above.

Bayou Trial Partners (bayoutrial.example) helps sponsors start studies at Houston hospitals.

1. Pick sponsors that outsource. The six listed companies with the largest R&D budgets in the table spent $140.7 million in 2025 and have small teams.
2. Do the arithmetic. If four run one new Houston study each year and Bayou wins half at $120,000 per study start-up, that's $240,000 a year.
3. Bring the site. Sponsors with five or 12 employees want a partner that already knows the hospital's contracting and review steps.

At this size, knowing each sponsor's trial calendar matters more than volume. Bebop looks up each sponsor in a list and suggests the right contact and angle.

See the largest biotech companies for the national leaders and the Houston pharmaceutical market report for the region's drug manufacturers.

Next step: compare the other Texas cluster in biotech companies in Austin.