The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville has generated $4.2 billion for Alabama’s economy since opening in 2006 with nearly $1 billion of that coming the last two years alone, a new report says.

The HudsonAlpha campus in Cummings Research Park now has 50 resident companies with 1,590 jobs tied directly to the institute or its associate companies. Those jobs and another 1,096 calculated “multiplier jobs” bring the total to nearly 2,7000 people working in bioscience including research, pharmaceuticals, medical testing, medical devices and agriculture, according to a study by the Center for Management & Economic Research at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

“HudsonAlpha continues to produce for the state of Alabama,” Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement accompanying the report’s release. “HudsonAlpha is adding jobs to compete in the innovation-economy, providing our educators the highest quality tools and techniques to teach the workforce of tomorrow, and making scientific discoveries in the world of genomics to help all of us live better lives. We are proud of what HudsonAlpha is doing for our great state.”

“During the past few years, we have seen certain areas of our economy slow down. So, when I see HudsonAlpha’s increase in momentum, I am particularly proud and humbled,” co-founder Jim Hudson said. “Every day, people on our Biotech Campus work to solve important problems in human health and agriculture. I am thankful for their efforts and those around the state who have supported us since Lonnie (McMillian) and I started HudsonAlpha.”

McMillian, a successful businessman who co-founded AdTran, one of Huntsville’s most successful early tech companies, and Hudson, founder of early Huntsville genetic research company Research Genetics, co-founded HudsonAlpha. McMillian died in 2019 at age 90.

The HudsonAlpha campus is still growing with the recent addition of the Center for Plant Science and Sustainable Agriculture and the coming this year of the global headquarters of Discovery Live Sciences, the institute said. The growth has meant $264 million in capital spending on the campus.

“Before Lonnie and Jim founded HudsonAlpha, our area’s biosciences industry had a relatively small impact on the state’s economy,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. “As this report shares, there is no doubt of HudsonAlpha’s continued contribution to Alabama as a whole and in making Huntsville a ‘Smart City.’”

“We at HudsonAlpha are excited about the future. HudsonAlpha is driven to make an impact in multiple areas, and we are honored to have contributed billions to the state since 2006,” current HudsonAlpha President Neil Lamb said. “We are proud to partner with so many organizations, both public and private, and look forward to collectively making Alabama the best it can be.”

The economic impact analysis was made using the IMPLAN economic model, the report says. IMPLAN is a software analysis service that uses computer models to “generate multipliers and multiplier effects (impacts) using regional and local data….”

HudsonAlpha and its associate companies supplied the data for 2006 to 2022. It included but was not limited to employment, revenues, payroll, spending, and capital expenditures for the 18-year period, the report says. “Using the data, the economic impact analysis was performed to estimate the impact of the HudsonAlpha campus on the economy of the State of Alabama,” the analysis said.