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Home > Articles By Month > December 2007

BUSINESS REPORT

Florida

Biomedical Momentum in Florida’s High Tech Corridor

From research in cancer and infectious diseases to diabetes and Alzheimer’s, Florida’s High Tech Corridor is helping to create a vibrant life sciences cluster in Central Florida

By Jenny Vickers

The Florida High Tech Corridor, a 23-county region in the heart of Central Florida, is one of the nation’s emerging high-tech clusters. It is home to 7,600 companies, employing 135,000 people (about 70% of Florida’s high-tech employment), with total earnings in excess of $8 billion in 2006.

The corridor is overseen by the Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC), which was established by the Florida Legislature in 1996 to help grow the high-tech industry in the region. The FHTCC partners with three research universities in the area—the University of Central Florida (UCF), the University of South Florida (USF), and the University of Florida (UF)—to help achieve that goal.

One of the fastest growing sectors in the corridor is life sciences. Currently, the corridor is home to more than 200 biotechnology and life sciences companies, supporting more than 9,100 employees. Some of the largest companies in that sector include Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceuticals and Florida Oncology Pharmacy both in Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL and Tyco Healthcare in DeLand, FL.

Florida’s life sciences sector was recently given a boost when the nonprofit medical research institute, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, chose Central Florida as the location of its new East Coast facility. Burnham broke ground at the 600-acre Lake Nona’s Science & Technology Park in Orlando, FL in October. The institute, which will be fully functional in 2009, will employ 250 to 300 individuals dedicated to diabetes and obesity research and drug discovery capabilities. Burnham’s 175,000-square-foot facility will be co-located with the recently announced $200 million UCF College of Medicine.

According to Karin Eastham, executive vice president and COO of the Burnham Institute, several other states approached Burnham, but Florida had incentive programs in place that made it very attractive.

“The combined state and local incentives brought the value of the package to $350 million over 10 years, with about half coming from the state and half from the Orlando region,” says Eastham. “In Orlando, the Lake Nona site offered the opportunity to co-locate with UCF’s new College of Medicine, in addition to several other medical research facilities. The ‘Medical City’ that is being developed at Lake Nona in Orlando will give us access to the partners we need to make our research a reality.”

Lake Nona and the “Medical City” there are part of the exciting events unfolding under Orlando’s new biomedical hub, bioOrlando, which was launched in June 2007. There are already plans in place to build a new Orlando Veterans Affairs Hospital and Nemours Orlando Children’s Hospital and Research Campus at Lake Nona.

BioOrlando, which is operating as a council within the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, is in the process of becoming a major biomedical cluster, according to John Fremstad, the commission’s vice president for technology-

industry development.

“It won’t happen overnight; biomedical clusters like the one in San Diego take years to build,” says Fremstad. “But we already have a strong foothold; we are already attracting numerous life sciences and biotechnology companies and will add thousands of life sciences jobs to the region.”

Combined, these developments are bolstering Orlando’s position as an emerging medical and biotechnology hub. The project, when complete, is anticipated to have a potential economic impact of billions of dollars and generate thousands of jobs in the next 10 years, according to a September 2007 study by the Santa Monica, CA-based Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank.

FHTCC’s Matching Grants Research Program

Companies locating in the Florida High Tech Corridor can take advantage of FHTCC’s Matching Grants Research Program, which invests millions of dollars to assist high-tech companies develop commercially applicable technologies. In the last decade, FHTCC has invested $52 million in 800 research projects with 270 companies.

“The research partnerships give meaningful research experience to graduate and doctoral students, and present value to companies, universities, and the local economy,” says FHTCC’s President Randy Berridge. “A study we completed shows that after our research projects, there will be more than $100 million in value downstream.”

The September 2007 Milken Institute study highlights the success of the FHTCC in capturing and retaining commercialization value in the state, and it notes the council’s direct partnerships between research institutions and industry as a model for other regions to follow.

According to the study, Florida has “the potential to develop into a robust innovation pipeline that links universities and research institutions with incubators, intellectual property firms, and venture capital.”

The Milken Institute worked with Enterprise Florida, Workforce Florida, and the FHTCC, along with 11 local and regional economic development partners, to assess Florida’s position since the state began working two years ago to attract biomedical research and related commercial activity.

Cardiovascular Sciences, a privately-held biotech company, received a FHTCC grant of $100,000 in 2006 to expand its research at UCF’s Technology Incubator. The company is developing a unique, nontoxic anti-adhesion patch to be used in surgeries.

“The FHTCC grant allowed us to obtain equipment where we can package and sterilize material ourselves instead of outsourcing it,” says Larry Hooper, M.D., director of clinical and regulatory affairs at Cardiovascular Sciences. “This really helped us move ahead and save lots of time and money.”

From Lab to Marketplace at UCF’s Technology Incubator

In order to succeed, life sciences companies must bring their research from the lab to the marketplace. UCF’s Technology Incubator in Orlando, which promotes entrepreneurial development and technology transfer, is helping companies do just that.

Within four years of the incubator’s operation, client companies have created more than 400 jobs and $140 million in revenues. In 2004, the incubator was named “Incubator of the Year” by the National Business Incubator Association.

According to Dr. Hooper of Cardiovascular Sciences, the company looked at other states to locate, but found UCF’s incubator most beneficial to its needs. “Locating at the incubator was our chance to get on the ground floor and be one of the major players in the research program,” says Dr. Hooper. “They provided us with a cost-effective space to work, as well as greater access to training, conferences, investors, advertisers, accountants, and legal help at no extra cost to our company.”

Cardiovascular Sciences is in the process of obtaining additional investments to bring its product to the market. The company aims to focus initially on the veterinary market and eventually move into human applications. “We’ve identified several areas in the veterinary market that will help us generate revenue a lot earlier than might be seen in other research companies,” says Dr. Hooper.

NeoCytex, a biotechnology company working to find new drugs to treat severe neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, came to UCF’s Technology Incubator in 2006 with expected federal, state, and matching funds close to $750,000. Nilabh Chaudhary, CEO of Neocytex, has benefited from the incubator’s advisory and business development support.

“The incubator has experienced leadership that is very startup-friendly,” says Chaudhary. “They have business, financial, and legal experts on call who routinely provide mentoring to clients. We especially appreciate their efforts in showcasing our technology and accomplishments to potential investors and advisors.”

Locating in Orlando has allowed NeoCytex to grow its work from the ground up: starting in the lab and, with support from investors, ending in the marketplace.

“The biomedical research community in and around Orlando is poised to rapidly grow,” says Chaudhary. “The incubator will continue to contribute to Florida’s economy by facilitating the creation of high-paying, knowledge-based jobs. The commercial success of former incubator clients is a sign that many things are being done right.”

One such example of success is the Cognoscenti Health Institute. The health-care service and technology company came to UCF’s incubator in 2001 with $4 million worth of investment. Less than two years later, the company had 47 employees and revenues of $3.8 million.

 

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