Kansas Leaders Form Consortium to Boost Drug Development

Kansas leaders Thursday formed a consortium to expand the region's cluster of drug-development companies that already employ thousands and routinely advance important medicine.

The National Drug Development Accelerator will focus on attracting new clients, increasing the number of clinical trials in Kansas and raising awareness about the area's strength in this fast-growing portion of the bioscience industry.

"We are going to expand the market share and reach of companies that are here," said Angela Kreps, president of KansasBio. "And ultimately this will result in attracting new companies."

Officials identified more than 100 companies, the employment of 10,000 workers and annual sales topping $1 billion when conducting an initial inventory of regional companies that specialize in pre-clinical testing, chemistry, clinical research, regulatory consulting and other work needed to discover, develop and gain approval for new drugs.

Local companies have played some role in developing or gaining approval for the 30 top-selling drugs, said Michael Beckloff, president of Beckloff Associates and chairman of KansasBio.

Larger pharmaceutical companies generally are aware of the expertise that can be found in Kansas, but the accelerator project can make inroads in this area, Beckloff said. Some of the greatest opportunities will be reaching out to smaller and midsize companies that are developing new drugs.

"From a drug development perspective, we really are a quiet giant in the industry," Beckloff said.

With a new Web site and other marketing initiatives, organizers of the accelerator effort will tout the region's ability to perform the work of making new medicine better and faster.

New blockbuster drugs have tended to take more than a decade and more than $1 billion to develop. Pharmaceutical companies are eager for expertise that could save money by speeding the process along.

KansasBio is working with the Kansas Bioscience Authority on the drug development accelerator initiative.

Nearly every state has mounted its own effort to gain recognition as an emerging biosciences hub. Some have criticized these initiatives as chasing a fad and questioned whether many can make a meaningful difference for other than a handful of the most significant bioscience regions.

Kansas is taking a far different approach that is focusing on areas where the state begins with a substantial foundation, said Tom Thornton, president and chief executive officer of the Bioscience Authority.

The drug development effort qualifies, Thornton said. Consider that the state already has more than 100 companies in this field. Plus, nearly 2,000 clinical trials now being conducted in the state have doubled over the past four years.

When regional leaders realized the area was home to a high concentration of companies making food and medicine for animals, they fashioned the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor initiative. In addition to heightened awareness, that work has resulted in recruiting new companies and expansion.

"Many of you know about the animal health industry," Thornton said. "This is an equally aggressive initiative to position this sector for leadership."

The potential for expansion among existing companies and the recruitment of out-of-state firms is significant, Thornton said.

"This is about business development. This is about bioscience growth," Thornton said. "This is about jobs."

Accelerator organizers made the announcement in the Lenexa offices of Thermo Fisher Scientific.

That business previously received investment from the Bioscience Authority that helped with the renovation and expansion of the four buildings.

The company has 500 employees in the area and is on track to add 95 to 120 jobs over the next five years, said Andrew Wilson, director of finance and information technology for Thermo Fisher's Microbiology North America business.

"We were running out of capacity," Wilson said. "We have grown since we've done this renovation."

Sen. Karin Brownlee, an Olathe Republican, joined a group of her legislative colleagues touring Thermo Fisher and other prominent biotech companies in the region.

Seeing evidence of how the Kansas Economic Growth Act and other initiatives are producing new jobs and scientific advances is encouraging, Brownlee said in an interview. It suggests, Brownlee said, that the investment has brought the expected returns.

"We are hitting the marks," Brownlee said.

To reach Jason Gertzen, call 816-234-4899 or send e-mail to jgertzen@kcstar.com.

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