Cleveland reputation for biotech innovation is growing

Cleveland is already well-known for its high quality medical care. But its reputation is growing elsewhere.

Some of the nation’s best and brightest are flocking to University Circle to be on the cutting edge of the biotech innovation. Channel 3′s Maureen Kyle continues our “Brain Gain” series with a look at how this could be the catalyst to change Cleveland forever.

“We are seen as a center for health care innovation among the leading clinicians that are here,” says BioEnterprise CEO Baiju Shah.

In between doctors and patient care is the medical innovation needed to save lives. And located between the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals sits BioEnterprise, an incubator for biotech startups.

“For every 10 ventures that is launched in the biomedical space, one of them will grow up to be the next ‘STERIS.’ Two of them will be successfully acquired by a larger company and then those entrepreneurs will start their next ventures.”

Shah started BioEnterprise in 2002 with 250 companies the incubator now has more than 600 and drawing in more.

“Went to the east coast, the west coast, someone convinced us to come to Cleveland, ” says Jake Orville, a New York native.

Orville could have taken his company anywhere and decided Cleveland was the best location.

“Having been here now for two years, I think that’s what’s unique with Cleveland. You have the combination of the technology and you have the combination of the physician care and the patient care and its the two of them that really helps breed companies like mine, Cleveland HeartLab.”

Cleveland HeartLab started with eight employees, now has 26 and is looking to add 10 more.

“Opportunity! Opportunity knocked,” says George Farr, vice president of biochemistry and biophysics at Cleveland startup Aeromics.

Farr was raised in Garfield Heights and moved to Connecticut to be a professor at Yale. He and a others moved back to work on protein advancement that will help stroke and brain trauma victims.

With their grant money they got a 16 hundred square foot lab in University Circle. “For that same amount of money back in New Haven, we would get basically just half of one of these benches. That’s it. No office space, no nothing.”

It’s these companies changing Cleveland’s reputation worldwide and will change the way we view successful local businesses. “They’re not the TRW’s. these are companies who have 10 to 50 employees that are working on very cool inventions that all of us are going to need.”

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