The Philadelphia region won a new federal tech hub designation for life sciences

The Philadelphia region has been selected as one of 31 federal innovation and technology hubs, making the area eligible to compete for a grant of up to $75 million to advance the area’s life sciences industry, the Biden administration announced Monday.

The Greater Philadelphia Region Precision Medicine Tech Hub was selected from among more than 370 applications for the Tech Hub designation, created by last year’s CHIPS and Science Act, which aimed to rejuvenate advanced manufacturing in the United States.

The Philadelphia Precision Medicine Tech Hub is one of five in a category called advancing biotechnology precision and prediction. Other categories include automation, clean energy, minerals supply chain, and semiconductor manufacturer.

Led by Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the local life sciences tech hub plans to work on supply chain and manufacturing issues in the production of cell and gene therapies and other advanced treatments, as well as on distribution, Anthony P. Green, Ben Franklin’s chief scientific officer, said in August.

Ben Franklin, which is leading a coalition of more than 50 organizations, is an early-stage investment fund that receives money from the state to spur economic development. In the next phase of the competition, the Philadelphia group will compete to be one of 5 to 10 hubs that receive up to $75 million each to implement their plans.

The designation “will further cement Southeastern Pennsylvania as a national and global leader in medical innovation,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said in a news release.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Energy this month named the Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub, centered on Philadelphia, as one of seven clean hydrogen hubs. The local hydrogen hub is slated to receive $750 million to produce hydrogen.

“As a tech hub and a hydrogen hub, Philadelphia and the region are paving the way to our nation’s economic future,” Casey said.

The region’s life sciences industry, however, recently lost out on a bid for a regional hub of ARPA-H, a new federal agency for health-care research. Boston and Dallas were both named instead. Philadelphia will play a supporting role with the University City Science Center, a nonprofit research incubator complex, serving as a “spoke” to the Dallas hub, which is focused on reducing health disparities.