Hillsborough County wants more companies like Saneron and Romark Laboratories. Both are into bioscience research, and both show promise. Saneron-CCEL Therapeutics is a fledgling R&D firm with no revenues at the University of South Florida's incubator center. Romark at 10 years old has $7 million in revenues and recently won FDA approval to market its flagship drug in the United States.

by Michele Adler mcadler@aol.com
photo by Alex McKnight

Bioscience in Hillsborough covers a multitude of disciplines frequently grouped under the "life sciences" umbrella - medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, marine sciences and robotics in addition to biological research. "Several years ago, we re-analyzed our strategic plans and identified target industries to see which ones matched up with our community," says Gene Gray, the county's director of economic development. "Bioscience was one of the areas identified." The convergence of several forces is piquing the community's interest in developing the life sciences:

• The announcement this year by the California- based Scripps Research Institute of its plans to open a major research center in Palm Beach County, which is expected eventually to spill over into other areas of Florida.
• The industry's recent growth - 11 percent nationally over the past four years, according to Popper & Co. in its report to the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100.
• An extensive medical products industry, contributing 51,000 jobs and $5 billion to the regional economy, according to a University of South Florida (USF) study.
• An unusually strong concentration of hospitals and medical facilities.

At the hub of much of this interest is USF. Its partnerships with medical facilities, especially the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, its significant investment in both research and facilities and its partnership with the business community make the university a natural generator for developing a life sciences community.

"They have a strong commitment," says Gray. "Large capital investments are attractive to researchers. The key to it is converting research into an end product."

That's the task of companies like Saneron and Romark.

Dr. Paul Sandberg is a founder of Saneron- CCEL Therapeutics and a full-time professor at USF's College of Medicine. This start-up company is researching two cell technologies to treat deadly diseases. One of its patents, UCord- Cell, consists of non-controversial umbilical cord post-birth cells that could help victims of stroke, spinal cord injuries, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) and heart attacks. The second technology, SERT Cell I, uses cells to treat Parkinson's disease. The company draws on neurological cell research developed at USF's College of Medicine.

Saneron (www.saneron-ccel.com) has the potential to generate revenues "in the hundreds of millions," Sandberg says. The company is sponsored by USF and numerous grants, most recently including $150,000 from the National Institutes of Health. A 43.2 percent interest in Saneron is held by Clearwaterbased CYRO-CELL International. Sandberg acknowledges that Saneron's work has to be associated with a major medical center, which USF provides. "You get brain power" that way, he says.

Romark Laboratories L.C. (www.romark labs.com) is a 10-year-old research-based company that develops medications for treating infectious diseases and cancer. The company was started when Chairman Jean-Francois Rossignol teamed up with Marc Ayers, president and CEO. While working in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, Rossignol developed new drugs for treating malaria and other tropical infectious diseases. He later discovered what is now called Alinia, a drug that treats intestinal infections. Romark has marketed the drug in several countries, and now has FDA approval to do so in the U.S.

The 18-employee firm has invested about $40 million to develop Alinia. Romark generated $7 million in revenues in 2003. Ayers estimates revenues many millions greater in the next five years. Among Tampa's assets for bioscience companies, Ayers says, are hospitals that can partner in clinical studies and the job market. "We had an opening for a quality assurance person recently, and we had a lot of excellent candidates from the local area." Also, the local community colleges and technology schools are training students in the kinds of technician careers that are important to bioscience firms, adds Robin DeLaVergne, vice president of membership and marketing for the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. But the one institution in the community that has the potential to turn the life sciences wheel is USF. It has the physical facilities, the R&D support, the skilled staff, the knowledge base and the ties with the business and medical communities. Such a network is crucial to the development of bioscience firms, says DeLaVergne. Other cities deal with universities that have "silos, where there's not much interaction," she says. "USF has an interdisciplinary approach." At the core of USF's capabilities is its partnership with the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute on campus, which stands among the nation's top National Cancer Institute-designated centers. Also integral to this effort are two buildings opening in USF's research park for bioengineering and life sciences research and entrepreneurship. The buildings are adding more than 230,000 square feet for laboratories, offices for corporate partners, an expanded 66,000-square-foot business incubator and the Center for Biological Defense. At their groundbreaking in January, USF President Judy Genshaft said she saw the buildings becoming "a nerve center that will allow a high-tech entrepreneurial culture to thrive." Tenants include the Florida Medical Manufacturers Consortium, BioMedTech Laboratories, Nanobac Pharmaceuticals and the USF Center for Entrepreneurship. Financial Services As important as the biosciences may be to Hillsborough's future, the Petri dish has not yet usurped the spreadsheet. Attracting financial services companies continues to be a major goal. That's a "strategic decision made 12 years ago," says Mark Huey, the City of Tampa's administrator for economic development. "We are not moving away from that. We continue to recruit, as it is an important cluster. It's not 'either/or' as far as financial services and biosciences. It's 'and/and.'" A criticism from some quarters in the community is that the financial services sector is largely made up of call centers, which typically pay lower salaries and are increasingly vulnerable to outsourcing. That may have been