Southeastern Pennsylvania is presently anchored in its life sciences industry by the following centers of excellence and catalysts of innovation:

• Five general medical schools, a school of osteopathic medicine, two schools of dentistry, two schools of pharmacy, eight nursing schools, a school of veterinary medicine, a school of podiatry, and a school of optometry.
  
  
• The nation’s finest concentration of leading medical/life science research institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Temple University Hospital, the Wistar Institute, the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Hahnemann Hospital/Drexel University, which collectively have received approximately $2.8 billion in National Institutes of Health and other federal research grants to fund their research activities over the past five years (1996-2000). Including the above-named research entities, over twenty universities and non-profit institutions were engaged in life sciences related research aggregating $803 million in R&D spending in 1999, alone.
  
  
• An explosion in intellectual property, as evidenced since 1991 by a quadrupling in biotechnology patents and a doubling of pharmaceutical patents.
  
  
• The second largest concentration of biopharmaceutical jobs in North America, with a resulting top ranking for the region based on the number of biopharmaceutical jobs on a per capita basis.
  
  
• A vast and growing array of collaborative life sciences research enterprises engaging in cross-discipline, multi-institutional and private partnerships, such as the Nanotechnology Institute, the Center for Advance Biomedical Research, the Center for Recombinant Protein Production and Structure Evaluation, and the Center for Bioinformatics.
  
  
• The critical business support systems required for a thriving biotechnology industry, namely research parks, biotechnology incubators, business schools, contract research organizations, diagnostics and testing companies, and venture capital funds and a healthy dose of public commitment.

The region has a long and distinguished list of first accomplishments in the fields of medicine, medical education, research and discovery, life saving medical procedures, including:

• America’s first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, founded in 1751
  
  
• The first hospital for children, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, founded in 1855
  
  
• The first independent medical research facility in the United States, the Wistar Institute, founded in 1892
  
  
• The first medical school and teaching hospital, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, founded in 1874
  
  
• The first cancer hospital, the Hospital of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, founded in 1904
  
  
• The first college of pharmacy, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, founded in 1921
  
  
• The first private psychiatric hospital, Friends Hospital, founded in 1813