I originally thought about titling this piece “Life Sciences, Biosciences, BioPharma, Biotech, and Healthcare: What’s the Difference?” but that was simply too unwieldy. Many people use these terms interchangeably without thinking about what they specifically refer to, and which types of jobs and activities they encompass. Are they all the same thing? I don’t think so, and using the wrong term often leaves many of us swimming in a sea of confusion. Let me illustrate my concerns by sharing some definitions taken from the Free Dictionary Online:
Life Science: “Any of several branches of science, such as biology, medicine, anthropology, or ecology, that deal with living organisms and their organization, life processes, and relationships to each other and their environment. Also called bioscience.”
BioPharma: Surprisingly, this widely used term is not found in this dictionary or the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. I use it frequently to mean biotechnology and/or pharmaceuticals, but where I don’t want to assign something to either subcategory. Biopharmaceutical did make it into the dictionary, defined as “(Biochemistry) of or relating to drugs produced using biotechnology”, but this is not tantamount to biopharma.
Bioscience: Another name for life science.
Biotechnology: “The use of microorganisms, such as bacteria or yeasts, or biological substances, such as enzymes, to perform specific industrial or manufacturing processes. Applications include the production of certain drugs, synthetic hormones, and bulk foodstuffs as well as the bioconversion of organic waste and the use of genetically altered bacteria in the cleanup of oil spills. Also, the application of the principles of engineering and technology to the life sciences; bioengineering.”
Healthcare: “The prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions.”
If you find some of these definitions somewhat vague you’re not alone, and a few fit nicely as subsets of the others. Biotechnology, for example, can be included under Life Sciences and could also constitute a subset of Healthcare. Let’s look at an alphabets worth of groups that exist in this realm. Where would you place them among the terms defined above?
A. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies
B. Med tech companies
C. Health IT companies (e.g. digitized medical records)
D. Makers of diagnostic kits
E. Doctors, nurses, hospitalists, physician assistants
F. Medical technicians (run clinical assays, process pathology samples)
G. Paramedics
H. Other hospital workers (accountants, maintenance, coders, billers, communications)
I. Intellectual property attorneys and patent agents
J. Medical supply houses
K. Contract research and manufacturing organizations
L. Agriculture, fishing, and forestry
M. Political lobbying firms and trade organizations (e.g. PhRMA, AMA)
N. Global health organizations (e.g. PATH)
O. Charitable disease organizations (e.g. Michael J. Fox Foundation)
P. Contract DNA sequencing labs
Q. Makers of over-the-counter health items, like vitamins, band aids, and nutraceuticals
R. Pharmacists
S. Naturopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists
T. University professors in anthropology, biochemistry, ecology, population biology, etc.
U. Deal makers (university technology transfer officers, business development folks)
V. Government workers in Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act
W. Plant breeders (e.g. developers of Golden Rice; engineering pest resistance)
X. Brewers and wine makers employing live organisms to do fermenting
Y. Zoo workers and animal breeders
I think that virtually all of these categories could be lumped together under the term “Life Sciences”, and for me that’s a problem. The term encompasses so many different elements and jobs that it’s nearly worthless, a catchall phrase that obscures the relative contributions of its various components. As a result, it muddies the message that many speakers are hoping to convey. A 2010 paper out of Washington State University commented on the complexity of categorizing the Life Sciences sector, noting that, “the life sciences are a broad collection of all technologies based on biology, thus inherently complex due to their living nature. In addition to human medical sciences, a host of other scientific fields from agriculture to zoology are included in the broad scope of the life sciences….. Such a diffuse sector makes for difficulty in traditional economic studies.”
My primary concern revolves around this last point, the use of this term to describe job numbers or economic output in the context of growth or decline. The phrase “Life Sciences” is so overly broad that it should be given a comfortable retirement and dropped from everyday usage. I frequently read about how well the “Life Sciences” are doing where I live, and for some of these subgroups (e.g. global health projects) I have no doubt it’s true. However, it obscures the fact that biotech has not been doing particularly well here over the past dozen years. There are few local job openings, with research positions in particular being difficult to come by. I think some people use the term “Life Sciences” because they’re trying to obfuscate this reality and shift attention away from it. I’m not a fan of this approach because you can’t develop a plan to address a problem that hasn’t been acknowledged.
An Internet search turned up only a few legacy examples where using the term “Life Sciences” still seems appropriate (but could still easily be replaced with other descriptors). Washington State’s Life Science Discovery Fund grants money to a wide spectrum of companies and organizations, so the use there seems reasonable. On Wall Street, the term is used by
