Research Triangle Park: A closer look at North Carolina’s burgeoning biotech hub

Research Triangle Park in North Carolina has emerged as one of the U.S’s most dynamic and rapidly expanding biotech hubs, home to a thriving ecosystem of established pharma companies, research institutions, and cutting-edge biotech startups. As the park is positioned between Duke University, NC State University, and UNC-Chapel Hill, it is able to leverage significant scientific talent and academic innovation to drive breakthroughs in life sciences, biomanufacturing, and therapeutics.  

Meanwhile, in recent years, significant investment, accelerated company growth, and the expansion of advanced manufacturing facilities have further solidified Research Triangle Park’s reputation as a world-class biotech hub and a key engine of the U.S. bioeconomy. 

In this article, we discover what makes North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park’s life sciences and biotech ecosystem so successful.  

Research Triangle Park: A complete biotech ecosystem  

Created in 1959 via a cooperative effort between leaders in government, business, and academia to attract more companies to North Carolina and retain local talent, Research Triangle Park has since transformed the region’s economy, which was once heavily reliant on declining sectors like agriculture, textiles, and furniture manufacturing. 

“Research Triangle Park has grown rapidly over the past few decades,” said George Magrath, chief executive officer (CEO) of Opus Genetics, a company based in Research Triangle Park. “While Research Triangle Park remains smaller than hubs like Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area, it continues to grow rapidly and has all the necessary components to build and grow a biotech company.” 

While the Park itself is a specific, 7,000-acre research and development hub, the wider area, known as the “Research Triangle Region,” incorporates the cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, as well as multiple smaller surrounding cities and counties. 

Not only does the area benefit from world-class research universities with outstanding talent pools, but it also has a great business climate and a reasonable cost of living to attract experienced talent.

According to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, there are 840 life science companies situated in North Carolina; more than 675 of these are based in the Research Triangle Region, and more than 300 of those are located in Research Triangle Park itself.  

An attractive destination for big pharma and biotech startups alike 

Research Triangle Park is alluring to both big pharma and small biotech startups. For big pharma, the hub offers scale, a deep talent pool, world-class infrastructure, and a vibrant ecosystem of universities, service providers, and manufacturing capabilities, making it an attractive location for research and development (R&D), manufacturing, and long-term operations. Meanwhile, for smaller biotech startups or early-stage companies, it provides access to academic research and talent, and the potential for collaborations with larger firms or service providers. 

Furthermore, one big incentive for all types of companies to set up base in North Carolina is a low corporate tax rate; from January 1, 2025, the flat corporate income tax rate was lowered to 2.25%, with a plan to fully phase out the corporate income tax in the state by 2030. 

Major pharmaceutical companies with a significant presence in the Research Triangle Park area include Biogen, Eli Lilly, GSK, and Novo Nordisk. In fact, Biogen, which started operations in North Carolina 30 years ago, said this summer that it would invest an additional $2 billion over the next three years to add multiple modalities and factories across its two campuses at the Park.  

The economic activity by these companies in the Research Triangle Region means that North Carolina was ranked as the top state for business in the U.S. in 2025. Additionally, in 2023, the state’s life sciences industry exceeded 100,000 jobs for the first time. And these are high-quality jobs, with workers earning more than $121,000 per year on average in 2023 – a wage level that far exceeds that for the overall state private sector by more than $55,000, or 84%.  

This also places North Carolina 7th among all states in life sciences employment; with its strong industry growth, the state has risen in this ranking in recent years, from ninth in 2020 and prior reports, up again from eighth in the 2022 assessment. 

“Research Triangle Park is an economic engine for the state from an employment, tax base, and purchasing power perspective, bringing both direct and indirect employment to the state. The residents from the state also benefit from the breakthrough science discovered, developed, and nurtured in the area,” stressed Magrath.  

It is also worth noting that Research Triangle Park benefits from non-profit organizations like the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the Center for Entrepreneurial Development, both of which offer support to companies located in the area.   

The future of Research Triangle Park: An ecosystem likely to keep growing  

“Given the quality of life, business environment, climate, and existing ecosystem, I would expect the Research Triangle Park biotech sector to continue to grow and flourish,” said Magrath.  

According to a report in BioBuzz, if the Research Triangle has been missing one thing over the years, it is a major injection of capital to make it into a biotech investment hub. But this could now be changing. In the summer, Hatteras Venture Partners, the region’s best-known life sciences venture firm, closed more than $200 million across two new funds, making it its largest haul in a quarter century, while Cape Fear BioCapital, which is dedicated exclusively to seed-stage therapeutics in North Carolina, deployed its first investments into Duke University spinouts. Ultimately, this could signal a maturing investment climate for the area.  

Furthermore, the Research Triangle Foundation – the non-profit that manages Research Triangle Park – announced this month that it had cleared the final hurdle for an ambitious rezoning of the Park. This is significant because the change in zoning will allow for the huge corporate campuses that currently dominate the park to potentially redevelop their land to include housing, retail, and other commercial uses for the first time, which will make the park more attractive to the way modern companies and employees want to work. 

“The Research Triangle Park area has a lot to offer beyond the biotech ecosystem that makes it an attractive area to build a biotech,” stressed Magrath. “We have the four seasons weather-wise, a reasonable cost of living, a great primary and secondary education system, low corporate (and individual taxes), and abundant housing availability. We are also two hours from the ocean and two hours from the mountains with growing arts, music, museums, food, shopping, and entertainment opportunities for families.”  

It is little wonder North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park is such an alluring hub for life sciences and tech companies, and investment activities like those mentioned certainly suggest that this biotech hub is on an upward growth trajectory.