Life Sciences Sector Toasts a Successful 2019
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFor us, 2019 has been filled with remarkable cross-organizational innovation, an inspiring 16th Annual Life Sciences Summit, and the launch of three exciting initiatives—the INscience news app, the DataX Bio-Innovation Challenge and the AXIS Mentoring program. In addition, we continue to fuel the life sciences entrepreneurial ecosystem as our Indiana Seed Fund III has made investments in six startup companies, including Lumavate, Sabanto, Brickell Biotech and Sexton Biotechnologies, bringing the total to eight since its inception.
We have also been busy working on a new report on artificial intelligence and advanced analytics’ impact on Indiana’s economy. It will be released in the next few weeks.
Indiana’s life sciences sector continues to thrive with several notable developments in our research universities, our start-ups and our companies.
Our institutions are not only making new discoveries, but they are being recognized with sizable grants from the leading scientific organizations around the world, including:
- Indiana University School of Medicine and Purdue University received $36 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch a drug discovery center to accelerate the development of an Alzheimer’s disease treatment.
- The University of Notre Dame received $33M grant from the World Health Organization for malaria research.
Whether Indiana’s life sciences companies are making acquisitions or investing in their local footprint, or new companies are moving operations here, the sector is vibrant and dynamic with hundreds of new jobs and potential for innovation, including:
- Cook Regentec’s spin-out of Sexton Biotechnologies and the subsequent $5 million venture capital investment in the start-up;
- Elanco’s pending $7.6 billion acquisition of Bayer Animal Health;
- Eli Lilly and Company’s acquisition of Loxo Oncology for $8 billion;
- SpectronX’s additional 55 jobs;
- Eli Lilly and Company’s investment of $400 million in its manufacturing facilities in Indianapolis and addition of 100 jobs:
- New-to-Indiana Arizona Isotopes Research Corp is establishing an R&D hub in Bunker Hill and bringing 40 new jobs to Indiana;
- Abbott Vascular establishing operations in Westfield with 450 jobs;
- LifeNet’s additional100 jobs;
- Indianapolis-based Covance announced 200 new positions;
- Catalent increasing their headcount by 200 employees and investing $100 million in their Bloomington facility.
These are only a handful of examples of the incredible work that is going on all over the state.
The six months since I have served as president and CEO of BioCrossroads have both inspired me and challenged me to continue to promote and grow this critical sector for both the health of patients around the world as well as the economic health of our state. We look forward to 2020 and to bringing even more life-changing discoveries and innovations to life.
Patricia Martin is president and CEO of BioCrossroads.