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Think KC and think bioscience, area leaders hope Bid for federal lab is part of larger effort to woo animal health companies By Jason Gertzen The Kansas City area is making a play for a $450 million federal bioterrorism research center. The National Bio and Agro-Defense facility would employ hundreds of scientists and laboratory technicians, and it would attract related ventures, said Bill Duncan, president of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is seeking offers for the expected 30-acre lab complex, which will specialize in investigating foot-and-mouth, other foreign animal diseases and a range of potential threats to the nation’s food supply. Initial responses are due March 31. A newly formed consortium will pitch the region as having the work force and a diverse mix of potential research collaborators that could contribute to the success of the 500,000-square-foot anti-bioterrorism operation. “We have substantial strength,” Duncan said. Backers of the effort plan to play up this region’s often underestimated life science and animal health credentials. Governors and civic boosters in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and other states are mounting similar campaigns for the project, which offers both prestige and big money. Construction costs for the facility are estimated at $450 million and the annual payroll once it is built will top $30 million, according to an economic impact study done as part of Kentucky’s bid. It’s too early to handicap any site’s chances. Federal officials are in the initial stages of compiling a list of potential locations. The proposed lab will work with some contagious and potentially deadly pathogens, a fact that has drawn concern and controversy in communities where similar projects have been considered. Residents in Boston, for example, have filed a lawsuit over a proposed high-security lab in their neighborhood. Officials respond that the labs are equipped with high-security systems and multiple levels of protection designed to prevent the accidental release of dangerous organisms. How the Kansas City region ultimately fares in the site-selection competition could be an early test of another initiative getting under way. Backed with nearly $500,000, Kansas City area business and civic leaders are working to enhance the region’s position in the animal health and nutrition industry. The effort will encourage joint research projects, and it will aim to bring new businesses to the area. Other work will seek to raise awareness about the major animal health and nutrition work that takes place in the region. Bayer Healthcare’s animal health division in Shawnee and Fort Dodge Animal Health in Overland Park are among more than 40 companies employing a total of 5,000, including at least 500 scientists, in the region, Duncan said. Research expertise also is available nearby. The University of Missouri-Columbia has a veterinary school, and Kansas State University has a vet school and a Biosecurity Research Institute scheduled to open this fall. The animal health initiative emerged publicly earlier this year at the Governors’ Summit on Regional Growth held at the Sprint Nextel campus in Overland Park. Joerg Ohle, president of Bayer’s animal health division, agreed to provide private-sector leadership and $300,000. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce has contributed $50,000, and organizers said they had a pledge for at least $100,000 more. “We look forward to establishing Kansas City as a national leader in the biosciences,” Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said at the summit. The life sciences institute will focus on encouraging cooperative research projects and technology transfer. The chamber of commerce will focus on legislation or public policy changes. The Kansas City Area Development Council will concentrate on luring new animal health and biotechnology companies. Development council officials recently returned from California, where they met with an animal health industry prospect, said Bob Marcusse, president and chief executive officer of the council. Animal health opportunities in the region will be highlighted by Kansas City area officials attending the biotechnology trade show expected to attract up to 20,000 industry representatives in Chicago next month. This initiative has a good chance of increasing the number of jobs and overall economic impact of the animal health industry in the area, Marcusse said. Businesses that either have headquarters or distribution networks in the Kansas City area account for about $4 billion, or 40 percent, of total annual animal health-care sales in the United States, according to a study done for the chamber of commerce. “There is double-digit growth in this industry,” Marcusse said. “There will be a lot of expansion opportunity.” The initiative also promises to aid companies already in the area, a key reason that Bayer executives agreed to seed it with substantial support. Raising awareness about existing companies and adding to the roster will make it easier for the area to recruit top researchers, said Bayer’s Ohle. Highly skilled workers tend to view a region more favorably if other career options are close by should one job not work out. It also would benefit companies in the region if they did a better job of teaming up for joint research and product commercialization projects, Ohle said. “A lot of these dots which exist in this area are not connected,” Ohle said. That can be a particular problem as large companies such as Bayer increasingly are supplementing their research and development efforts by licensing technology developed by others or by acquiring smaller firms. The initiative can report at least modest progress. Chief executives of the major animal health companies in the region recently gathered to discuss common concerns and opportunities, as well as consider future collaboration. “It was the first time they had joined together like this,” said T. Nelson Mann, a chamber of commerce board member and former chairman. It is not yet clear what cooperative ventures might emerge, but a database detailing research expertise available at the universities and development needs of companies is one possibility, said Dan Richardson, chairman of KansasBio, the state’s trade organization for the plant, animal and human biosciences industry. |
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