The Leader - March/April 2009 - (Page 56) LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES: BIOTECH INDUSTRY PLAYS A PIVOTAL ROLE IN GLOBAL ISSUES, OFFERS INTRIGUING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT engine. Throw in a healthy dose of federal R&D and a university sys“We're dedicated to growing our bioscience industries through our tem devoted to biosciences, and you have the makings of a burgeoning growing research clusters in the state,” said Maria Haley, executive biotech cluster in a once sleepy state. director of the Arkansas Department of Economic Development. “We’ve been a well kept secret, and that’s beginning to change,” Clean and green is a big part of Arkansas’ overall economic developsaid Joey Dean, executive director of the Metro Little Rock ment strategy, a focus that other states and the communities across Alliance. the U.S. are pursuing as well. Little Rock is an important In Southern California, cog in the state’s Arkansas Rancho Cucamonga works Biosciences Institute. The through efforts like the city’s University of Arkansas Inland Empire’s Green Valley for Medical Sciences is home Initiative, a regional partnerto the Myeloma Institute of ship focusing on sustainable Research and Therapy, an economic development, to cominternational pillar of canbine environmental consciouscer research, and Arkansas ness and its biotech thrust. The Children’s Hospital. UAMS idea is to combine a cluster also includes 17,000-sq.-ft. of companies like Amphastar (1,579-sq.-m.) wet lab and incuPharmaceuticals, Acro-Biotech, bator space, including a FDA SwabPlus and Basin Water with certified “ultra-clean-lab” neca West Coast environmental essary for human trial activiethos to spawn job growth and ties. The medical school’s economic development. labs and technology licensing “As we see some biotech office have spawned seven companies move in this direcgraduate companies and nine tion too, we hope to see an client companies. Across the increase in clean and green state, the Arkansas Biosciences technologies, which will Institute includes the state’s provide new and ongoing division of agriculture, employment opportunities,” Join the more than 57 biotech and pharmaceutical companies that call Dublin, Ohio home by Arkansas State University and said Mike Nelson, economic locating your business in the Central Ohio the University of Arkansas, development manager for Innovation Corridor. Fayetteville, as well. the Rancho Cucamonga Dublin is the address for 543 high-tech On the federal side, Redevelopment Agency. companies and the hometown of Ohio's Arkansas is home to the Food largest company, Cardinal Health. and Drug Administration’s A Big Catch Shouldn't it be your address, too? National Center for for the Little Apple Premier sites available in Innovation Park, Toxicological Research Ten years ago, Manhattan, Dublin's 1,300-acre next-generation tech park. (NCTR) in Jefferson. The Kan., and Kansas State NCTR’s research focuses on University began laying the toxicity as it relates to human ground work for landing one exposure and susceptibility. of the biggest biotech ecoThe 1 million-sq.-ft. (92,903nomic development wins sq.-m.) facility includes 132 of the past year, the U.S. general or special-purpose labs, 23 pathological processing labs and 10 Department of Homeland Security’s National Bio and Agro-Defense biosafety level 3 labs. Facility (NBAF). Manhattan, the Little Apple, celebrated the official Arkansas’ private sector bioscience efforts involve R&D related to announcement in January. cellulosic ethanol and alternative fuels, but the state’s ag sector also In the middle of the Midwest, Kansas State is also central to the includes the headquarters of Riceland, the world’s largest rice miller, and U.S. animal-health corridor that stretches throughout the region and Tyson Foods, which operates its flagship food-safety lab in Springdale. employs 13,000 animal health specialists. In the late 1990s, K-State In Dublin, Ohio the sky’s the limit 2 0 0 9 THE LE ADE R 56 MARCH / APRIL http://www.dublinecondev.com http://www.dublinecondev.com
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