The Economic Impact of OMRF

Adding New Dollars and Jobs to Oklahoma

OMRF Technology and Spin-off Companies

What the Future Holds

Adding new dollars and jobs in Oklahoma

OMRF is like a business producing a product, and that product is medical research. In addition to deepening scientists’ understanding of human disease, the research also generates a significant flow of revenue—grants—into Oklahoma from outside the state.

In 2006, OMRF secured more than $25 million in federal grants and contracts. Those grant awards help support 543 jobs at OMRF, which has an annual payroll of $31 million. Indeed, the average full-time annual salary at OMRF is $47,676, well above Oklahoma’s average wage of $31,856. And each job at OMRF also creates, on average, almost one additional job in the state, generating another $15 million in salaries for Oklahomans each year.

Value that can’t be captured in a spreadsheet

Discoveries at OMRF led to the first FDA-approved drug for the treatment of severe sepsis, which claims the lives of more than 200,000 Americans each year. OMRF researchers have also identified the enzyme believed responsible for Alzheimer’s disease. And a drug with OMRF roots—Ceprotin, which is used to treat children suffering from life-threatening blood-clotting complications—became the first drug licensed under the European Union’s new centralized procedure.

Along the way, OMRF has garnered worldwide media attention, from The Today Show and The New York Times to leading scientific publications like The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature and Science.