Biotech Firms Drawn to Tennessee Resources
Published Apr 08, 2003
The Cool Springs Life Sciences Center is anticipated to bring more than 600 jobs to the area.
Memphis isn’t the only Tennessee city that is seeing a surge in biotechnology businesses. Across the state, research, chemical, pharmaceutical and health-care service companies are finding the resources and support they need to thrive.
At the core of that support is the Tennessee Biotechnology Association, a statewide trade organization of industry leaders, including scientists, researchers, academicians and business professionals. The TBA supports life science education, research, health care and technology-transfer programs. The organization also works to enhance access to capital for existing biotechnology companies, as well as support biotech business recruitment to Tennessee.
“From one end of our state to the other, Tennessee has tremendous life science resources,” says TBA Executive Director Caroline Jones. “The TBA works to better support and leverage these assets so that Tennessee will be a key player in our nation’s growing biotech sector.”
With the support of such research centers as Vanderbilt University and Medical Center, Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University, and Middle Tennessee State University, Music City is quickly becoming Medicine City. The Nashville Health Care Council, an association of key industry leaders, fosters the city’s health-care industry by helping to provide a supportive environment for new, existing and relocating health-care companies.
Among the biotech companies that have made their home in Nashville are Protherics, which focuses on immunotherapeutic research and development; ICON Clinical Research, which provides pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with clinical research and biometrics services; and VDDI Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical development company in the areas of cancer and infectious and cardiovascular disease.
Brentwood-based BioMimetic Pharmaceuticals, a developer of protein therapeutics for tissue and organ regeneration, and VDDI Pharmaceuticals will be among the first tenants of the planned Cool Springs Life Sciences Center, a 10-acre, 140,000-square-foot research and development campus devoted to life sciences.
Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. has partnered with Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Technology Development Corp. to develop a life sciences incubator in downtown Nashville. Called Cumberland Emerging Technologies, the incubator will help bring biomedical technologies and products from Vanderbilt and other regional laboratories to the marketplace by providing the necessary infrastructure and aiding in the acquisition of federal grants.
In East Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory enjoys a well-earned reputation as a life sciences powerhouse, and many businesses have clustered around ORNL’s resources.
At its Oak Ridge facility, Theragenics has formed a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy to explore opportunities in isotope production. Genomix Corp., also in Oak Ridge, is a genomics-based drug research company generating novel gene and protein candidates for the treatment of several types of human disease.
ImTek Inc., formed in Knoxville in 1998 based on technology developed at ORNL, has created an in-vivo X-ray CT scanner that it has successfully distributed to 22 public and private research institutions.
Also promoting biotech in Knoxville are the University of Tennessee Medical Center and the UT Center for Environmental Biotechnology. In association with ORNL, the CEB promotes a multidisciplinary approach for solving environmental problems through biotechnology.
In the Tri-Cities area, biopharmaceutical companies are major business players; King Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline both have operations in Bristol. Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport and East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine in Johnson City are also valuable contributors to the state’s biotechnology efforts.
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