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Posted on Mon, Jun. 18,
2007
By JASON GERTZEN CHICAGO | It’s time for the Midwest’s biotechnology leaders to get over their widespread inferiority complex. Talk in these parts too often turns to how the San Franciscos, San Diegos and Bostons attract the bulk of bio-businesses. That conversation starter tends to shift quickly to the notion that venture capitalists rarely visit while flying over on their way to recognized hot spots on the coasts. To be sure, Kansas City, Cleveland or even Chicago is unlikely to be mistaken for Silicon Valley or the biotechnology-rich Route 128 region in Boston anytime soon. Yet the states clustered from the Great Lakes to the Great Plains often are under recognized for the growing base of research expertise and high-tech entrepreneurial pursuits that they are nurturing. “There really is a lot going on here,” said Neil Wyant, a former nanotechnology company executive now consulting with others trying to transform life science innovations into commercial ventures. Wyant joined other industry experts last week at an event organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to draw attention to the region’s bioscience successes and remaining challenges. The Kansas City Star is a participant in the council’s Midwest Media Project, an initiative supported by the Ford Foundation to stimulate more in-depth coverage of the impact of important global trends on the region. The Midwest’s emergence in the biosciences can be seen clearly in an analysis of the industry done by the Battelle Memorial Institute. The report “Growing the Nation’s Biotech Sector” includes some surprises on its list of metropolitan areas based on their strength in various industry niches such as research, testing and medical laboratories, drugs and pharmaceuticals, agricultural feedstock and chemicals. “You see some other emerging areas that people don’t think about,” said Walt Plosila, a Battelle vice president who advises regions on their bioscience initiatives. Columbus, Ohio, for example, is viewed as an emerging area in medical devices. Missouri’s two largest cities both stand out for their employment in the research, testing and medical labs category. “Ten years ago I doubt we would have seen Kansas City and St. Louis on here,” Plosila said. “It shows what can happen when you get aggressive about this.” With so many states devoting multimillion-dollar initiatives to bolstering the biosciences, additional perspective also is required for regions attempting to identify their best prospects, Plosila said. The biosciences should be viewed as one element that can help diversify a regional economy with high-paying jobs and a bustling industry, Plosila said. It is not, however, a magic bullet that single-handedly can slay the forces claiming tens of thousands of jobs in shifting industries such as manufacturing. Another key message from Plosila was that regions must take stock of existing bioscience strengths and focus resources there, rather than spreading themselves too thin on a wide-ranging initiative not based on competitive advantages. “Everybody shouldn’t be in this business,” Plosila said. “You have to have something to work from.”
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