Regional Economic Development Groups Join Forces

July 1, 2007

2 Min Read
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Shah

Representatives of both BioEnterprise (Cleveland) and Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse were on hand at the annual convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization in May to promote the economic development groups' new alliance. Together, the groups hope to accelerate the development of the region's medical device, biopharmaceutical, and healthcare service industries.

Under the new alliance, BioEnterprise and Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse—whose city centers are about a two-hour drive apart—intend to explore various opportunities to enhance the business environment for regional start-ups. In addition, they intend to develop a joint awareness campaign directed at the venture capital community that will emphasize the region's resources for bioscience companies.

"In the Cleveland-Pittsburgh corridor, there are more than 700 existing bioscience companies, more than half of which are medical device firms," says Baiju R. Shah, president of BioEnterprise. "Strong clusters exist in medical imaging, home health devices, and orthopedics and tissue engineering. In addition, there are emerging clusters in areas such as neurostimulation and cardiovascular devices.

"As important, the recognition of these neighboring regions as a connected corridor has resulted in an immediate increase in coastal venture capital interest in medical device opportunities in the region," Shah adds.

Not long after BioEnterprise and Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse rolled out their new partnership, the Southern California Biomedical Council (SoCalBio; Los Angeles) announced that its board of directors had voted unanimously to approve the integration of Orange County's Life Science Industry Council (LINC) into SoCalBio. Through the merger, the organizations hope to maximize their capacity to represent and serve Southern California's growing biotech and medical device constituencies in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, the Inland Empire, and the Gold Coast.

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