The 200-member organization unofficially began in 1997, when Arizona biotech companies gathered to create the Arizona Bioindustry Cluster. Today, ABA combines its efforts with the state government; groups such as its Washington, D.C. affiliate, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO); state universities; and the private sector.
“Bioindustry reaches out in so many directions—from research and testing, to manufacturing, to the development of bioscience companies, to artificial intelligence, to pharmaceuticals, to creating medical devices to improve peoples’ lives,” McGarity says. “And bioindustry diversifies our economy, brings in young companies and develops a critical mass of bioscience industry.”
Bioindustry includes the application of biotechnology and other advanced life sciences to the creation or alteration of life forms and processes, including the development of instrumentation and medical devices such as artificial limbs, cardiac pacemakers, renal dialyzers, blood analyzers, and brain and body imagers. Biotechnology also refers to diagnostic and therapeutic cellular research in areas such as plant and animal breeding, environmental remediation, and industrial production of various products.
“The bottom line is to improve healthcare,” says McGarity. “Improving healthcare for Arizonans, for Americans, and for the world.”
Mapping a Vibrant Bioindustrial Future
Five years ago, the ABA turned to the Phoenix-based Flinn Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic endowment supporting the state’s biosciences and arts. In an effort to become a national leader in bioindustry, the foundation awarded a grant to the Battelle Memorial Institute, the world’s largest private nonprofit dedicated to technology assessment and development.
Battelle’s Technology Partnership Practice created the Arizona’s Biosciences Roadmap, a 10-year action plan released in April 2002 that reviewed Arizona’s bioscience strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.
“While more than 40 states have formalized initiatives in the biosciences, few if any have created a long-term, comprehensive strategy to the extent outlined in Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap,” says Saundra Johnson, vice president for Strategic Development & Communications for the Flinn Foundation. She says that in 2001 the foundation helped to build and strengthen the state’s research infrastructure and its capacity to compete in the knowledge-based economy, and noted that Arizona is pursuing five sectors: agricultural biotechnology; hospitals; medical devices; research, testing and labs; and drugs and pharmaceuticals.
Recently, the group devoted all of its healthcare grants and professional resources to further biosciences in Arizona. P
In brief, the study recommends a 10-year fast track for Arizona to achieve national bioscience competitiveness. The report notes the need for a stronger medical research base, both through private firms and university labs; a critical mass of bioscience firms and jobs; and a set of core competencies to link to market opportunities. Arizona requires as well more public- and private-sector investment and a greater integration of efforts among higher education, industry and nonprofit sectors. Within five years, the report shows a shift in concentrating efforts on bioengineering, cancer research, neurological science, and bioimaging. At 10 years, Arizona should look toward leadership in agricultural biotechnology, and therapeutic research on asthma, diabetes, and infectious disease.

Navigating Success and Beyond
“The Roadmap is an evolving process that has led to numerous follow-up studies, reports, committees, and even mini-Roadmaps specific to the Tucson and Flagstaff regions,” says Johnson. “Most importantly, the Roadmap has been broadly adopted and followed by Arizona’s bioscience community, and actions have been taken by organizations statewide to follow its recommendations. It is the blueprint for building a strong bioscience sector in Arizona.”
In the few years since the report was released, McGarity believes that Arizona is navigating exceptionally well. For one, he notes that all statistical trends are positive. Employment in the Arizona biosciences is up 16 percent from 2001 through 2005, according to Battelle’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We’re showing that the biosciences offer an opportunity to establish a high-wage, technology-driven employment base of highly skilled workers in Arizona,” McGarity says. The Battelle study cites the stability of the economy through the balance of more cyclical industries such as tourism. McGarity also points to the 2003 state legislation authorizing $440 million for construction of a dozen new university research facilities from Flagstaff to Tucson as another stabilizer.
“The state’s universities and community colleges; research institutes; hospitals; economic development organizations; business CEOs; government leaders; and others in the philanthropic community—all are components of this success,” Johnson says. “The key ingredient to the success of the Roadmap thus far has been Arizona’s willingness and ability to collaborate across institutions and public and private sectors.”
For McGarity, biosciences in Arizona are progressing on course and on time. “Funding jobs, creating new companies, building new research facilities and other infrastructure—I don’t know of any other area that has come so far in so short a time,” he says.

www.azbioindustry.org
www.flinn.org