Biotech companies in Philadelphia: Penn, cell and gene therapy, and a four-state metro

This report is for job seekers, investors, partners and suppliers looking at biotech in and around Philadelphia. The Census metro is unusually wide: it takes in the Pennsylvania suburbs (Montgomery, Chester, Bucks and Delaware counties), South Jersey around Camden, Wilmington and New Castle County in Delaware, and Cecil County, Maryland.

How many biotech companies are in Philadelphia

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area (CBSA 37980), NAICS 541714 (biotech research and development) and 325414 (biological product manufacturing):

The metro employee and payroll totals were published but flagged as high-noise: the Census Bureau's confidentiality noise moved them by 5% or more, because of the 25 biologics plants. The 196 R&D labs on their own are clean: 8,001 employees and $1,703,832,000 of payroll, about $213,000 per employee (our calculation).

The city itself has only 42 of the 221. The suburbs and Delaware have the rest, which is where most of the listed companies are headquartered too.

By size

Of the withheld classes, the R&D code shows 31 labs with 5 to 9 employees and 7 with 100 to 249; the larger classes aren't published. Only 31 establishments have 20 to 99 employees, so the middle is thin: most establishments are either very small or part of a large company.

What the codes leave out

Contract research and testing labs (541380), drug discovery labs coded 541715, pharmaceutical plants (325412) and corporate headquarters sit outside these codes. So do the university and hospital labs where much of the region's cell and gene therapy work happens. Life Sciences PA's 2026 report, prepared by KPMG, counts 109,000 direct life-science jobs in Pennsylvania in 2024 and 361,000 including indirect and induced jobs, using a far broader definition.

Listed biotechs in the metro

SEC EDGAR lists 26 listed companies with a Philadelphia-metro business address in SIC 2834 (pharmaceutical preparations, 20), 2836 (biological products, 5) and 8731 (commercial research, 1, Incyte). From their latest 10-Ks, all for 2025:

Employees as of 31 December 2025 unless dated; blank where we didn't take a figure. Pennsylvania towns are in the suburban counties unless the city is named.

The clinical-stage group is the region's growth engine for suppliers: Larimar, ArriVent, Cabaletta, Mineralys and Prelude spent $676.6 million on R&D between them (our sum) with fewer than 160 employees each where stated, so much of that money is spent with CROs, manufacturers and clinical sites.

The research base

NIH RePORTER shows $1.43 billion of NIH awards to 93 organizations in the metro in fiscal 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), across 2,313 projects:

Companies received 76 awards worth $56.5 million, 57 of them small-business (SBIR or STTR) grants. Penn alone took 51% of the metro's NIH total.

Cell and gene therapy sites

FDA's biologics registration has two parts: cell and tissue establishments register with its biologics center, and other biologics makers register as drug establishments. Products made only for trials don't require registration.

• Drug establishment registry: 154 metro registrations, 96 with manufacturing operations. Registrants include Spark Therapeutics (active ingredient manufacture), Iovance Biotherapeutics Manufacturing and Advanced Therapies in Philadelphia, Janssen Biotech in Malvern, and AstraZeneca in Philadelphia, Bensalem and Newark, Delaware.
• Cell and tissue registry: 15 metro establishments are registered for blood stem cell or peripheral blood mononuclear cell products, including the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, CHOP's Cell Based Therapy Lab, Jefferson's cellular therapy lab, Temple's transplant program, Nemours in Wilmington, and suppliers such as StemExpress in East Norriton and Pharmaron in Exton.

Where to look

1. Life Sciences PA, the statewide trade association, says it represents more than 960 organizations and runs a group purchasing program.
2. NIH RePORTER, searched for Penn, CHOP and Wistar investigators, shows the science behind the next spinouts.
3. 10-K properties sections list each company's lab and manufacturing leases, which tells you whether the work happens in the city, the suburbs or Delaware.

Selling into Philadelphia cell and gene therapy

Worked example: a vector analytics lab

Illustrative example. The lab, test prices and volumes are invented; the companies and sites come from the filings and FDA's file.

Schuylkill Vector Analytics (schuylkillvector.example) runs potency, titer and safety tests for viral vector and cell therapy batches.

1. Pick the accounts. Developers with clinical programs (Cabaletta, Century) plus registered manufacturers (Spark, Iovance, Advanced Therapies) are five accounts that release batches all year.
2. Do the arithmetic. If each runs 30 lots a year needing a $12,000 outsourced test panel and the lab wins a third of the work at three of them, that's 30 panels and $360,000 a year.
3. Find the buyer. Quality control or analytical development leads choose labs; quality assurance approves them as suppliers.

Most of the time goes into learning which programs are moving into later trials. Bebop builds that account research for each company on a list, with suggested contacts.

For the national ranking, see the largest biotech companies; for the region's drug manufacturers, the Philadelphia pharmaceutical market report.

Next step: compare the neighboring cluster in biotech companies in New Jersey.