How Dallas licked partisan politics and regional rivalries to land coveted biotech hub

Dallas will be home to one of three headquarters for the Biden Administration’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.

By most metrics, Dallas was the underdog in the battle over the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.

The city doesn’t have the legacy of a biotech giant like Boston or San Francisco. It doesn’t crack the top 13 life sciences markets, which includes neighboring Houston, according to PitchBook. It’s in a conservative state that the Biden Administration would seemingly want to avoid.

But Dallas, along with a coalition of Texas’ biggest cities, lobbied for the biotech research agency’s headquarters for more than two years in private meetings and public declarations, ignoring any concerns from outsiders about the region’s chances.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, including confidence, and on a relatively subdued Zoom call Tuesday, the state’s diligence paid off ten-fold. ARPA-H will call Dallas home, alongside hubs in Cambridge, Mass., and the Washington, D.C., area.