Biotech companies in Seattle: where nonprofit research outspends the listed companies

This page is for job seekers, investors, partners and suppliers sizing up biotech in the Seattle area. The Census metro covers King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, so it includes Bothell, Redmond, Lynnwood and Tacoma as well as South Lake Union.

How many biotech companies are in Seattle

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area (CBSA 42660), NAICS 541714 (biotech research and development) and 325414 (biological product manufacturing):

The metro employee and payroll totals were published but flagged: the Census Bureau's confidentiality noise moved them by 5% or more. The flag comes from the six biologics manufacturing establishments. The R&D code on its own is clean: 112 establishments, 5,359 employees and $897.5 million of payroll, an average of about $167,500 a year (our calculation).

CBP counts establishments with paid employees, not companies. A startup in a shared incubator with no payroll yet isn't counted.

The research labs by size

The combined size table isn't published because the manufacturing cells are suppressed. In the R&D code, the 500 to 999 and 1,000-or-more cells are withheld; 2 is the total less the published classes. Seattle's labs skew larger than San Diego's: 23 of 112 (21%) have 50 or more employees, against 15% in San Diego.

What the Census codes leave out

NAICS 541714 and 325414 don't capture everything people call biotech. Research institutes and hospitals are classed by what they are, so Fred Hutch and the Allen Institute may not appear here. Diagnostics and sequencing instrument makers sit in other manufacturing codes, drug discovery software companies in software, and small-molecule labs often in 541715 (other life-sciences R&D). The City of Seattle counts "over 25,000 life sciences jobs in King County" across biotech, pharma, devices and digital health.

The listed biotechs, with cash

SEC EDGAR lists nine listed companies with a Seattle-metro business address in SIC 2834 (pharmaceutical preparations, 6) and 2836 (biological products, 3). From their 10-Ks for 2025:

Cash is our sum of each balance sheet's cash and cash equivalents and short-term investment lines; "cash only" where no short-term investment line is tagged. Employees as of 31 December 2025 or the filing date; blank where we didn't take a figure.

Together they spent $626.9 million on R&D (our sum), less than Neurocrine Biosciences in San Diego spent on its own. Immunome stands out: $653.5 million of cash against $177.3 million of R&D covers more than three years of R&D at its 2025 rate, more room to keep spending than most local companies have.

Where the research money goes

NIH RePORTER shows $1.22 billion of NIH awards to 57 organizations in the Seattle metro in fiscal 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), across 1,501 projects:

Companies received 52 awards worth $46.1 million, 47 of them small-business (SBIR or STTR) grants. Omeros ($4.5 million) and PharmaIn in Bothell ($2.6 million) were the largest company recipients. For a supplier, this table is the bigger market: core facilities and principal investigators at these six institutions spend grant money on reagents, instruments and services every month.

FDA registrations: cell therapy and biologics sites

FDA's biologics registration has two parts: blood and cell or tissue establishments register with its biologics center, and other biologics makers register as drug establishments. Manufacturers making only investigational products don't register until approval.

• Cell and tissue registry: 10 metro establishments are registered for blood stem cell or peripheral blood mononuclear cell products, including Fred Hutch, Seattle Children's, UW Medicine, Bloodworks in Seattle and Renton, and NMDP Collection Services. Those products are the starting material for cell therapies and transplants.
• Drug establishment registry: Juno Therapeutics (Bothell, with manufacturing and packaging operations), AGC Biologics (Bothell), Just-Evotec Biologics (Redmond) and Partner Therapeutics (Lynnwood) are registered for active ingredient or product manufacture.

How to vet a Seattle biotech

1. Check runway in the 10-K. Divide cash and investments by annual R&D plus overhead; under two years usually means a financing or cuts are coming.
2. Look up the science in RePORTER. Many local companies spin out of Fred Hutch or UW; the founders' grants show the program's history.
3. Use the association's directory. Life Science Washington publishes a member directory and a career center.
4. Ask the city. The Office of Economic Development lists its life sciences contacts and partner organizations.

Selling into Seattle biotech

Worked example: a cryogenic logistics firm

Illustrative example. The firm, volumes and prices are invented; the counts come from FDA's registrations and the 10-Ks above.

Cascade Cold Chain (cascadecold.example) stores and ships frozen cells and clinical samples.

1. Start with registered cell handlers. The 10 cell product establishments plus the Juno site in Bothell are 11 accounts that move cell material every week.
2. Add the developers. Sana and Immunome are funded and running trials; their clinical operations teams pick couriers and depots.
3. Do the arithmetic. If eight of the 11 sites ship 40 cryogenic packages a month and Cascade wins 15% at $900 a shipment, that's about 48 shipments and $43,200 a month, roughly $518,000 a year.

Building that list means cross-checking FDA files, filings and grant records for each account. Bebop researches each account on a list and points to the people who pick suppliers.

For how Seattle's companies compare nationally, see the largest biotech companies; for the wider business base, see companies in Seattle.

Next step: compare a much larger company base in biotech companies in San Diego.