Minnesota Initiative Designed to Beef Up State's Biobusiness

Originally Published MX July/August 2006

BUSINESS NEWS

Between 1997 and 2002, Minnesota's strength in biobusiness slipped when compared with key competitor states, according to recent research findings released by the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota. With this underlying knowledge, the nonprofit group—in conjunction with industry, academic, and governmental partners across the state—is heading up an initiative to ensure the long-term growth and competitiveness of Minnesota's biobusiness sector, which is dominated by medical device operations.

"Minnesota remains a leader in certain biobusiness subsectors," says Dale Wahlstrom, chairman of the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota and vice president of cardiac rhythm management for Medtronic (Minneapolis). "The 1997-2002 trends identified in the studies must not only be turned around, but growth must be accelerated in order for Minnesota to remain competitive."

The bulk of Minnesota's biobusiness jobs are in medical device companies. Since 2002, biobusiness job losses in Minnesota have stopped, and between 2002 and 2005 the state added about 4000 jobs to its biobusiness sector, according to an assessment of state records.

The recently released research findings represent the first in a series of three steps designed to strengthen the state's biobusiness position. With the economic data under its belt, the alliance is now developing a collaborative initiative called Destination 2025. The initiative will include 5-, 10-, and 20-year plans for preserving and growing the state's biobusiness competitiveness. The third step will be to put a resource network in place to assist companies looking to start or expand their bioscience-related businesses in Minnesota.

According to Wahlstrom, alliance research has revealed two main areas in which improvement is needed if the state's biobusiness sector is to excel. "First, we've become more dependent on big companies to keep this state's industry alive," he says. "Small companies and start-ups are not doing as well as they used to. That will be a focus area for us."

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