Growing health innovation as potential gamechanger - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Sarasota's BioLife LLC may not be a household name, but its first-aid product is found in 25,000 stores across the country — and possibly in your medicine cabinet.
BioLife's WoundSeal powder stops bleeding and helps the body's own blood proteins create scabs that can ward off infections. Sold at Walgreens, Publix, CVS and other retailers, it also sits in about 60,000 workplace first-aid kits.
The company estimates it has sold more than 10 million applications of WoundSeal since founded here in 1999.
"Everything is here," said Andrew McFall, vice president of marketing. "Everything is manufactured here and our corporate office is here. This is home to us."
BioLife is one of more than 130 companies in the Sarasota-Manatee region that comprise the innovators in health, an industry sector with about 2,000 local workers that economic developers hope to cultivate in the coming years.
Some of those companies, along with the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County and the Bradenton Area EDC, are presenting the second annual Health Innovation Week today through Friday.
Health innovation companies are holding open houses and special events for the public to learn more about the still relatively small but growing sector that could become a critical component of the region's economic future.
“We want to tell the story of the region’s emergence as a center for health innovation in a way that can attract more resources for the sector to continue growing,” said Mark Huey, president/CEO of the EDC in Sarasota.
A big impact
The network includes about 50 companies that are directly involved in research, production, software and other health innovations, some of which are doing pioneering work, he said.
Another 80 companies and institutions support them.
Key players in Health Innovation Week include the Roskamp Institute, CAE Healthcare, which makes patient simulators, RPS Diagnostics, developer of a point-of-care diagnostic device, and Enzymedica, a nutraceutical company.
The Lakewood Ranch campus of State College of Florida and LECOM, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, will show their health care educational programs and facilities.
The Gulf Coast Community Foundation, which has twice funded Health Innovation Week with $25,000 grants, sees the health care innovators as one of the key players to diversify the local economy.
"This is not a 'nice to have' any more, it's a 'must have,' " said foundation president/CEO Mark Pritchett. "Health care is such a basic need, so there's a lot of money flowing into it, not only for basic health care but for new drugs and new treatments. Our growing population requires more of that."
One of the recent successes is BioLucid, a Sarasota-based developer of virtual reality technology for the health care industry.
The company was just acquired by ShareCare, a digital health company whose founders include WebMD creator Jeff Arnold and celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.
BioLucid’s technology provides virtual tours of the human body that can be used by medical providers, patients, educators and others to help understand diagnoses and treatments. The company will remain in Sarasota under the new name “Sharecare Reality Lab.”
The economic impact of the health innovation sector, while not a leading industry yet, can be significant.
BioFlorida, a statewide advocacy group, says Florida's life science industry supports 79,000 direct jobs with 5,476 establishments. The industry pays an average salary of $73,545, nearly double the $42,447 state average of other industries.
In the Sarasota-Manatee region, the life-sciences network represents nearly 27,000 direct and indirect jobs, according to research conducted last year for the Bradenton Area EDC.
BioFlorida, which will hold a BioTech Expo Thursday at the Ringling College of Art and Design, created a local chapter several years ago that now has more than 20 corporate and individual members.
Building the local infrastructure with local businesses and institutions that can support research will help the sector grow, said Michael Van Butsel, business chair of the local chapter.
"Over a period of 10 years there has been a real commitment to this industry on a local basis, and we think it will be as strong as even Orlando," he said.
Quality of life
BioLife, a privately owned company that employs 32 people, also makes a product called StatSeal that is sold to hospitals and used to form a seal at catheter access sites.
It is expanding its sales overseas, now in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico and starting distribution into the United Kingdom and Italy, McFall said.
WoundSeal was "accidentally" invented here by two scientists who were working with a powder for water purification when one cut his hand. The powder went into the wound and unexpectedly stopped the bleeding.
The company uses a local network of suppliers, marketing and PR firms and others to keep as much business here as possible, McFall said.
One of the big selling points to attract and retain health innovators here is the quality of life, he said, with a relatively low cost of living, good schools and easy commutes.
"We are trying to be very efficient on how we collaborate, too," he said. "We've got retired CEOs here that have a lot of knowledge who are willing to help contribute to our thinking, a supplier network, the hospital, and clinical support like Roskamp. We're trying to tie that together."
The idea for Health Innovation Week, Huey said, came from several CEOs who felt they needed more exposure to nurture and grow their businesses.
"One of their main frustrations is that no one knew about them in our area," he said. "They felt that hurt them in recruiting employees, in attracting investment, because they were way under the radar screen. This is part of an ongoing effort to elevate the profiles of the companies to help them attract new resources."
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