SCBIO highlights state’s bioscience innovation
The South Carolina Biotechnology Industry Association (SCBIO) brought together biotech companies, aspiring entrepreneurs and national and international players for networking, updates and opportunities during its recent conference in Greenville. The good news is that biotech companies are opting to stay in the state rather than relocate. Challenges include recruiting skilled labor and locating funding for startups and expansion.
Biotech has been a part of South Carolina’s industrial base for decades, but has taken off in the last 10 years. Upstate industries, health care and universities have routinely partnered on projects to develop everything from bioprinting for growing tissue to genetic molecular panels for detecting cancer biomarkers.
Weaving the past and the future
Greenville-based Izumi International began as a textile equipment business in 1977, moved into textile parts and then into carbon fiber about 15 years ago, said Mike Chappell, R & D engineering manager. After adding industrial automation about eight years ago, Izumi connected with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) researchers last year and used their production knowledge in the industrial market to build a bioprinter, he said. The 3-D printer creates scaffolding for lab-grown tissue.
Bioscience researchers have labs and sometimes try to create products, but without industrial equipment. Industrial producers like Izumi can help researchers skip a step and go to “scalable, industrial production right off the bat,” said Chappell. Izumi has now hired a bioengineer to help find researchers or companies who need production assistance, he added.
Billion-dollar ideas
John Feltman, CEO of Atlanta-based Brookhaven Medical, said he was impressed that S.C.-based CreatiVasc Medical raised “$3 million in 2008 when no one could raise money.” Feltman invested $5 million in CreatiVasc in 2013, and the company is poised to produce an innovative product in dialysis treatment – a billion-dollar idea, said CreatiVasc CEO Steve Johnson. CreatiVasc and Brookhaven Medical are set to merge with FutureMatrix Interventional, a company Feltman has been involved with for nearly 20 years.
CreatiVasc has created a hemoaccess device that works as an on/off switch for blood in patients undergoing dialysis treatment, avoiding the 75-percent failure rate in the first year associated with a traditional graft, said Johnson. The technology is on the cusp of becoming the standard of care for dialysis, he said.
And how to solve the problem of getting rid of the needle-activated version was found at the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology (SIMT) in Florence, which created a version activated by an external magnetic device. CreatiVasc has opted to move its design and component manufacturing to South Carolina, he said. The new device is expected to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016.
Challenges ahead
Finding funding for startups and production of biotech products is still a challenge for many companies and developers. Michael Gara, director of technology development at CUBEInc., a Clemson University and Greenville Health System collaboration, said that investors want a quick return, and bioscience projects take more time than some are willing to wait. Gara said there are not many life science investors in the Southeast and they have so much appetite and funds.
SCBIO hosted a panel on obtaining government funding, and Van Hipp of American Defense International outlined the hottest areas for military-backed research and production, including wound care, brain health, infectious disease, radiation protection and vaccine delivery.
Economic development & impact
Biotech is making its mark on the state, and there is a movement away from the state exporting its companies to other areas, said Sam Konduros, executive director of the Greenville Health System Research and Development Corporation.
Umesh Dalvi, CEO of The Ritedose Corp. in Richland County, told attendees that his company that makes blow-fill-seal packaging for pharmaceuticals would be at production capacity within three years. They had considered moving to a larger facility but will stay in South Carolina and construct a 80,000-square-foot expansion and invest $110 million. One of the challenges is finding, screening and hiring quality employees, said Dalvi.
Konduros said that the fledgling GHS Research and Development Corp. is seeking ways to support business and economic development that aligns with the health system’s mission of improving the region’s health. Focus is on technology transfer in developing intellectual property, fostering industry collaborations and assisting in economic development.
The new corporation creates a vehicle to move collaborations like those between GHS’s ITOR (Institute for Translational Oncology Research) and Selah Genomics into the marketplace, he said.
“Data is showing us over and over, as a hospital, we can only move that needle [area health] a little bit. Socioeconomic factors are the biggest driver in terms of regional health either getting better or worse,” Konduros said. “That has helped build the case for our engagement in economic development as the largest health care system, largest employer [in the Upstate].” One goal is to create the sort of economic impact made by Houston’s Texas Medical Center, he said.
‘Making our presence known’
South Carolina has created a unique environment for biotech development, said John Feltman: “South Carolina needs to get over any inferiority complex it might have.”
Sam Konduros concurred. “South Carolina used to be metaphorically in a valley between Research Triangle Park and Atlanta in the life sciences industry,” he said. “Now we are really making our presence known.”
