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State Now On Radar Screen Of Biotech |
By David Wichner
Arizona still has a long way to go for biotech companies, but the state's showing at the premier industry convention last month helped put the state on the bio map, attendees say. The state sent its biggest delegation - some 40 strong - and an eye-catching red-rock exhibit display to the Biotechnology Industry Organization 2003 Annual Convention in Washington, D.C., billed as the world's biggest bio trade show.
The delegation came away from the convention June 21-25 with about 100 potential business leads, according to Tony Guglielmino, life-sciences director for the Greater Tucson Economic Council.
GTEC is working several leads on companies interested in locating in the area, Guglielmino said, declining to discuss specific companies. "We were trying to make an impression that Tucson and Arizona want to become major places for biotech, and we already have some very strong assets here," Guglielmino said. "The biggest comment we got was, 'I had no idea so much was out there.' "
Arizona's striking, 40-foot- long exhibit was an attention-getter among larger pavilions hosted by such states as Maryland and Pennsylvania, he said. About 16,000 people attended the event that showcased 1,200 exhibitors.
The shared Arizona exhibit, a backdrop resembling three red-rock cliffs, featured large flat-panel video screens playing footage of Arizona scenery. "That was kind of the hook to get people in. . . . I thought as an advertising piece, it was brilliant," said attendee Nina Ossanna, senior director of business development for the Tucson-based drug technology firm ImaRx Therapeutics.
Guglielmino said Tucson and Phoenix got a welcome public-relations boost during the show as Genetic Engineering News passed out free copies of the semimonthly magazine's June 15 issue, which included articles about the biotech industries in the Old Pueblo and the Valley of the Sun.
An article titled "Biotechnology Begins to Emerge in Tucson" concluded that with about 60 diverse biotech companies, the area is gradually developing the industry even as it fights old images of Tucson as only a cactus-and-cattle capital. "Biotech Bustles in Phoenix" highlighted the development of the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the International Genomics Consortium. "They were passing those out like hot cakes," he said.
Drug trials readied
ImaRx will begin human clinical trials of its "microbubble" drug technology within a few weeks, Ossanna said. The company will test its microbubble product, MRX-815, as part of an investigational drug application approved for treating blood clots occurring in dialysis grafts.
The trial will involve 24 patients and demonstrate the use of the microbubbles with ultrasound to dissolve the clots.
The company is negotiating agreements to hold the trials at University Medical Center, St. Mary's Hospital and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Ossanna said.
Aventis write-up
The Tucson-based division of Aventis Pharmaceuticals got some welcome ink recently with a front-page story in a major trade magazine. The July issue of Drug Discovery & Development featured a cover photo of the management team of the Aventis Combinatorial Technologies Center and a four-page story inside portraying the center as a best-kept secret in the area of developing chemical leads for challenging drug targets.
The Tucson operation is an outgrowth of Selectide Corp., founded by four University of Arizona professors and later sold to Aventis. To view the article online, go to the magazine's site at http://www.dddmag.com/
* Contact reporter David Wichner at 573-4181 or wichner@azstarnet.com.
Copyright © 2003 Dan Swango and Associates