Southern Arizona is well positioned to succeed in the biosciences but it has to overcome the challenges of retaining faculty, staying at the cutting edge of research, developing sources of capital, commercializing technology from the University of Arizona and developing more interaction among biosciences firms and the university.

Those are the conclusions of the Southern Arizona Bioscience Roadmap, a study done by Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, and presented last week at the Southern Arizona Leadership Council’s annual retreat. The study, funded through a grant from the Flinn Foundation, sought to find ways to make Southern Arizona a leader in the biosciences industry.

“A lot of the ingredients are here, we just need to accelerate it,” said Roger Vogel, chairman and CEO of SEBRA, which produces instruments for biotechnology companies.

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For the purposes of the study, biosciences were split into five subsectors: agricultural, feedstock and chemicals; drugs and pharmaceuticals; medical devices and equipment; hospitals, and research, testing and medical laboratories.

To move forward, the roadmap says Southern Arizona should focus on:

• Building a research and development base around key platforms.

• Getting up to a critical mass of biosciences firms.

• Maintain a supportive business climate.

• Develop a talent base.

• Education local leaders and the public about biosciences.

Each of these areas included a 17-point action plan.

Among the recommendations are include instituting an executive-in-residence program to increase a supply of entrepreneurial managers, form a regional or statewide fund for seed money, use C-Path as an anchor to develop the UA’s planned Biosciences Park, offer incubator and accelerator facilities and strengthen BIOSA (Bioindustry Organization of Southern Arizona).

Four years ago, Batelle developed a similar biosciences roadmap for the entire state. But this one was developed to focus on the particular strengths of Southern Arizona.

Saundra Johnson, with the Flinn Foundation, said it’s necessary for each area of the state to understand its own strengths, noting that Arizona State University in Tempe differs from the UA, which differs from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

“By strengthening each area we will raise the entire state in bioscience standards,” Johnson said.

According to the study, Southern Arizona has been growing faster than the rest of the nation in different areas of biosciences.

Employment in non-hospital fields has grown 21.9 percent since 2001 compared to 0.9 percent growth nationally. The study ranks Tucson 28th out of 72 large metropolitan areas based on its location quotient in the research, testing and medical laboratories subsector.

“There is so much more going on here in Southern Arizona than we really knew until this study was done,” said Bob Hagen chairman of the Southern Arizona Tech Council.

Hagen also said he likes this plan better than previous roadmaps because this one gives more focus to activity.

SEBRA’s Vogel said, “if it is anything like the IT industry in the 1960s, we’re in for a wonderful future.”

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