Industry Snapshot

The biotechnology and medical device industry in Oregon is comprised of more than 100 companies that encompass a broad spectrum of activities including biotechnology, agricultural biotech, environmental technologies, medical devices and diagnostics, commercial testing laboratories, health information technology, biotech suppliers and others.

Nearly one-fourth of the companies have been founded since 2000 and have fewer than 12 employees. Sixty percent is engaged in the research and development, and manufacture of biotechnology products and/or services for human therapeutic, diagnostic or agricultural applications. Thirty-four percent develop and/or manufacture medical devices. The remaining firms comprise nonprofit research organizations, pharmaceutical, and nanotechnology companies.

Life science industry activities are located primarily in the Portland metropolitan area, but also stretch south through the Willamette Valley to Eugene, and in Central Oregon, Bend and Redmond have a growing cluster of companies, including Bend Research, Columbia Medical, Respironics (Mini Mitter), Suterra and others.

Although Oregon's bioscience and medical technology industry is still in its infancy, the state has three main components necessary to foster its economic growth: government support, strong research universities and a well-trained work force.

Government support

Working hand in hand with the state's economic development partners to make sure these diverse companies achieve their full economic and social potential is the non-profit Oregon Bioscience Association. The Bioscience Association conducts seminars, conferences and trade shows to promote Oregon companies and their products and assist them in finding financial partners and securing strategic alliances.

The Oregon Bioscience Association (formerly the Oregon Biotechnology Association) was formed in 1990 to promote the economic development of biotechnology in the state. In 1997, the organization broadened its umbrella to provide a continuing forum in which government agencies, business, and academia can work together to address the long-term development issues facing not only biotech companies, but the life industry as a whole.

Research Universities

The key to bioscience is research, and Oregon is blessed with a variety of public universities and private research institutes, as well as for-profit enterprises. Most notable among these are:

There are also a number of private four-year educational institutions.

Oregon Health & Science University researchers have made several hundred invention disclosures during the last decade. Many of those technologies already are in the marketplace and have been licensed to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Others have resulted in the formation of a dozen spin-off companies.

The state's research capabilities extend down the Willamette Valley to Eugene and Corvallis.

The University of Oregon in Eugene is one of only 60 public and private institutions, which have been selected to belong to the Association of American Universities. Among other honors, seven University of Oregon faculty members have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences and two currently hold American Cancer Society Career Professorships, more than any other university. Science Watch magazine ranks UO ninth among the nation's top 25 institutions in papers most frequently cited by other researchers.

Oregon State University in Corvallis was awarded nearly $130 million to support research during the 1996-97 fiscal year. Recently, New York-based SIGA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. established a research laboratory in Corvallis to foster its relationship with researchers at the university. The new R&D facility in Oregon represents a significant effort to develop new vaccines and antibiotics against emerging and resistant infectious diseases. OSU jointly owns and licenses some of the intellectual property used by SIGA.

OSU is the only university to have two National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Centers: The Environmental Health Sciences Center, which provides coordination and stimulation of vigorous interdisciplinary environmental health research and training as related to human health, and the Marine/Freshwater Biomedical Science Center, which promotes research and training activities that utilize aquatic research models to investigate environmentally related human diseases.

Other important research centers include the Oregon Graduate Institute, a private graduate school dedicated to scientific education and research. OGI's departments of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology are home to research activities in biotechnology, metallobiochemistry and bioenergetics. Its biological research has an emphasis on fungal and yeast biology with a focus on gene regulation, ion transport across biological membranes and metallobiochemistry.

Also, faculty members at Portland State University are conducting research in molecular ecology, membrane biophysics and viral gene regulation.

Attracting Investors

The biggest challenge facing the bioscience industry in Oregon today is attracting capital. Good science alone cannot create a company. Seed capital is required to hire management, develop a business plan and execute a strategy.

The Oregon Resource and Technology Development Fund, with an initial $12 million in state lottery proceeds, has spent the past 10 years feeding nearly half this amount into Oregon start-ups. Cascadia Pacific manages the fund for the state, and it recycles its profits into the fund for reinvestment. The fund has now grown to $23 million. Three biotech companies in the fund's portfolio have gone public: Oxis International, Inc., which develops antioxidant-based drugs; Consep, Inc., which makes biology-based pesticides; and AVI Biopharma, which uses anti-sense technology to attack viruses.

In addition to the state fund, Oregon is beginning to grow its own brand of venture capitalists. Angel investors have been willing to put their own wealth into promising companies. Oregon Life Sciences, with an initial $750,000 for early stage investing, has grown to three times its original size with nine portfolio companies. Oregon Life Sciences continues to fill cash gaps for a number of bioscience industry companies and is currently forming three new investment partnerships, one of which, Viral Partners LLC, has licensed innovative technology from Oregon Health & Science University.

Oregon's strong research institutions have built enough momentum in the biosciences to create a vibrant industry here. The key is to help those scientists make the leap from the laboratory to the business world. As OHSU former President Peter Kohler sums it up, "This is one of the primary ways OHSU can be a good partner for the city and the state, and a positive force for economic development."