Animal Health Corridor Anchors New Bioscience Jobs in Kansas
The cluster of animal health companies straddling the Kansas-Missouri line added hundreds of research and manufacturing jobs, officials said.
The so-called Animal Health Corridor stretching across the Kansas City region added hundreds of new research and manufacturing jobs over the past year, according to a regional economic development group that tracks the cluster.
The corridor is home to a dense concentration of companies working on veterinary pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and pet products, and boosters say a large share of global animal health sales flow through firms with operations in the area. Kansas has courted the sector aggressively, pairing university research at Manhattan and Olathe with incentives for private investment.
"This is an industry where Kansas genuinely competes on the world stage," an economic development official said. New facilities announced in the past year include a vaccine production plant and a diagnostics laboratory.
Officials said workforce development remains the key constraint, and community colleges have expanded programs to train laboratory technicians.
