BioRealty, Inc.

Downtown Chicago is the host to the Chicago Technology Institute, a 56 acre facility located within the Illinois Medical District. The facility provides complete incubator support to medical research companies including complete infrastructure services, access to nearby university resources, and customized business development services based upon each tenant’s needs. So far, the Institute has helped 25 firms move through the incubator phase and out into the general economy.

Houston is seen as another candidate to become a thriving technology cluster. The Texas Medical Center, a consortium of 42 non–profit and government institutions, has received $2.2 billion in grants in just the past 5 years.[5]

These investments have resulted in the successful creation of over 100 start-up research companies which continue to stimulate Houston’s research economy. If fueled by easier access to venture capital these numerous new companies should virtually guarantee the city’s future as an emerging life science cluster.

Other regions, including Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, and Madison all possess the resources and demographics necessary to support cluster development, and putting aside the economic offerings being used to attract the biomedical industry, some industry analysts believe that the emerging interest in Embryonic Stem Cell Research, as well as counter bioterrorism research may be the next big drivers that will help form other new biomedical clusters is regions that are not currently considered to be major players.

Outside the U.S., similar efforts are being made to create new, emerging biomedical clusters. The Doors of Perception Blog,[6] a design and architectural publication, reports on “plans in China for the world’s first urban biomedical hub,” to be located in the crowded Xuhui district of Shanghai. This urban cluster, called the Fenglin Biomedical Centre, intends to bring together life science, medical care services, medical education, business incubation, and medical exhibitions.[7]

In Canada, three of its major cities - Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal - have all made terrific progress in the formation of new biotechnology companies, and the major cities in Europe, which produces 40% of the world’s pharmaceuticals[8], and Japan, which is the 2^nd largest health care economy in the world[9], are other key areas to watch.

There is no question that the landscape of biomedical clusters is changing rapidly. No longer is biomedical an industry who’s participants will locate almost exclusively on the east and west coasts of the United States. As more and more regions work to create environments where essential support systems are in place (i.e. availability of venture capital, strong governmental support, successful tech transfer, access to academic centers of excellence and big pharma companies, an abundant skilled workforce, and a growing community of organizations involved in pre-commercial medical research) and where these key ingredients all come together, new biomedical clusters will continue to form and flourish. Is your community one of these emerging biomedical clusters?