Feature

BIO 2008: Utah is a Great State for Life Sciences

This month the world’s leading executives, scientists and decision-makers within the biotechnology industry will gather in San Diego for the 2008 BIO International Convention. EDCUtah will be there as well, along with representatives from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), the Utah Science, Technology, and Research initiative (USTAR), Utah’s research universities and 22 biotechnology businesses or organizations.

Over the four-day convention, June 17-20, the Utah delegation will spread the word that Utah is a great state for life sciences—a fact born out by the state’s vibrant life sciences industry, which boasts more than 500 companies employing over 19,000 people. What’s more, Utah ranks first among the western states for life science businesses per capita and second for overall industry growth.

EDCUtah President and CEO Jeff Edwards says the BIO convention is #1 in the life sciences space and provides the Utah delegation with an excellent venue to tell the “Mario Capecchi story,” attract businesses to the state, network and make partnering, licensing and venture capital contacts.

A distinguished professor of human genetics and biology at the University of Utah's Eccles Institute of Human Genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Dr. Capecchi is a pioneer in gene targeting and a winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

“The compelling achievements of Capecchi and many other great Utah scientists are helping us tell the world that Utah is no slouch for research in the biotechnology field,” Edwards says.

Indeed, Utah offers a world-class effort in arterial and vascular access devices, producing 70 percent of all devices used worldwide, and developed the first human artificial heart. Furthermore, Utah is very active in the biotech and drug delivery sectors. The Utah Population Database, coupled with the state’s genealogy records, is the world’s most comprehensive of its type. This has led to the discovery of more human genes than anywhere else in the world and will, in time, translate into major technology being applied to the emerging field of personalized medicine.

“Utah has some very strong niches and the Utah pavilion will showcase those strengths, rather than trying to be all things to all people,” says Kim Lofgreen, vice president of marketing and organizer of the BIO pavilion. “Our objective is to provide opportunities for our Utah biotech companies to expand.”

Lofgreen notes that each participant has a different reason for attending and the contacts they make at the BIO convention can help propel them forward, whether they are looking to launch research, find partners, sell their services, arrange financing relationships or garner interest from venture capital firms. Furthermore, the BIO convention provides a great opportunity for Utah companies to meet each other, network with each other, share ideas and reach out.

Utah’s booth at the BIO convention is part of Governor Jon Huntsman’s cluster development effort. As such, it is co-sponsored by GOED, EDCUtah and USTAR. Governor Huntsman has targeted the life sciences industry, of which biotech is a subset, as one of seven clusters on which the state will focus its economic development efforts. In addition, the USTAR program has attracted some world-class life science teams, including Personalized Medicine and the Brain Institute. It is also home to leading edge research at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

This is the fourth year of participation and Edwards says the Utah pavilion has some buzz behind it, which is helping Utah position itself nationally and internationally within the broader life sciences industry. The BIO convention is a big deal, not just for Utah but for all 50 states and many foreign countries.

“Everybody wants biotech projects. Even foreign countries like France, Germany, Canada and several dozen others will have massive pavilions at the convention. It’s a very competitive industry,” Edwards says. “Biotechnology companies are at or near the top of the list for many state's recruitment efforts. In fact, numerous states have created campuses and incubators to foster the growth of biotechnology companies. Utah has a great life science story to tell as well, and this pavilion is just another way to tell the world about it.”

Utah organizations that will be featured in or are sponsors of the Utah Pavilion at BIO 2008 include:

• ARUP Labs
• Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
• The Brain Institute at The University of Utah
• BioMicro Systems, Inc.
• Cephalon
• Daw Technologies, LLC
• The Economic Development Corporation of Utah
• Frontier Scientific, Inc. & Echelon Biosciences, Inc.
• Governor's Office of Economic Development
• Incite World
• Lifetree Clinical Research
• Nelson Laboratories, Inc.
• NeuroAdjuvants, Inc.
• Oracle
• Q Therapeutics Inc.
• Quansys Biosciences
• Rocky Mountain Research
• Salt Lake Community College
• Sorenson Genomics, LLC
• Stoel Rives, LLP
• Tandem Labs
• Thermo Scientific
• UNIConnect
• USTAR
• University of Utah
• Utah Valley University Biotechnology Program
• Utah Technology Council

Click here to read about each of the Utah organizations participating or supporting the Utah Pavilion.