Matching Minnesota in Bioscience

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For years Minnesota has set the pace in the Midwest when it comes to growing a bioscience industry. In 2007, Ohio closed the gap.

According the latest report from BioEnterprise, 44 Ohio bioscience companies (mostly from Northeast Ohio) raised about $296 million in capital -- pretty much the same amount 25 companies raised in Minnesota. The 2007 performance shows that Ohio is emerging a significant player in the bioscience industry. However, to truly close the gap with Minnesota, Ohio will have to sustain its performance for many years to come. That will require at least three things:

1. More local capital to invest in the most promising companies.
2. More research spending that can lead to promising companies.
3. More talent prepared to create promising companies.

The partners in Advance Northeast Ohio are working on all three issues. We're beginning to see the dividends of that work, but now is no time to rest.

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Comments

# Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Thu, 01/24/2008 - 13:54.

If you look at economic history and geography, you see that industry (and economic growth) arises in clusters. For example, the rubber industry made Akron the quintessential boom town 100 years ago. If you look at the history of most sizable cities, they had one (or more) industries that found a home there and, with supporting businesses, caused the city to grow.

The effort that is being put into Bioscience in NE Ohio makes a lot of sense. Spreading resources into too many areas would mean none reach a critical mass high enough to create a cluster. Instead, we'd have several flashes in the pan.

There is much evidence the bioscience cluster is taking off in NE Ohio. This makes me more excited than any news coming out of the region.