Jan. 31, 2012
Thank you.
Thank you, Marty, for your leadership of this important organization.
Regent Jewett, thank you to everyone at the Flinn Foundation for creating the first Bioscience Roadmap a decade ago. Flinn’s leadership has helped put Arizona in a strong position in one of the most important economic and scientific initiatives. In short, we would not be here without your leadership.
And Dr. Trent, Your impact on the medical sciences and on our local economic landscape since your arrival a decade ago has been profound – a true game changer.
That doesn’t mean there was no such a thing as bioscience in Arizona before 2002. There were great scientists doing cutting-edge work in this community before 2002..
But the successful effort to bring Dr. Trent and TGen to Phoenix was the start of something big. Your arrival effectively signaled the beginning of Arizona’s bioscience age.
I was proud to help lead the effort for the City to provide land and in-kind support to help start up the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
We did not wait for others to lead. We did not wait for anyone’s permission. The City of Phoenix led the way, setting the tone to move our economy forward in the direction of not only bioscience but also in the direction of medical education and sustainable industries. But we would not have been successful without the support of the State Legislature, Maricopa County, the Tribal communities, and the philanthropic efforts of business leaders. Phoenix led, but it was a true regional and statewide partnership. And, as Mayor, I can guarantee we will continue that leadership.
I come here as a lay person, as a political leader. If I were any good at science, I wouldn’t have become a lawyer and a politician in the first place. But here is what I believe: my support of bioscience is based upon my economic philosophy. I know with absolute certainty that we must broaden our economy – we must make it more sustainable – we must better insulate it from the over reliance on the real estate market. We found out the hard way that subsidizing sprawl is not smart economic development. If we didn’t know this before the current recession and crash of our real estate economy, we certainly know it beyond the shadow of a doubt now.
As we emerge from this recession, we know our state is at a crossroads. We now exist in a globalized, international economy. We must accept and embrace this new economic reality. We can no longer think of our region as just competing with neighboring cities and states -- we are competing with Shanghai and Frankfurt. We owe it to our kids and grandkids to be best prepared for the future.
We have taken many steps in the right direction. From the arrival of TGen, along side the International Genomics Consortium, we have followed with ASU, U of A College of Medicine-Phoenix, the U of A College of Pharmacy, VisionGate Inc., Bioscience High School, a branch of the National Institutes of Health and – soon – the U of A Cancer Center.
TGen has in very short order become an internationally recognized and respected research institution. It’s especially known for the “T”: translational. Dr. Trent and his team are translating genomic research discoveries into applications that benefit people.
TGen itself has generated:
- Nearly $80 million in annual economic activity
- More than 700 jobs (at TGen and by TGen)
- Nearly $5 million in annual state tax revenues
- And most importantly, every dollar invested in TGen returns more than $14.00
And we continue to grow Arizona’s bioscience sector during one of the worst recessions in recent history.
Since 2002, the number of bioscience jobs in Arizona has grown by 32 percent to almost 100,000. That growth rate outpaces the rest of the country by nearly three times.
And these aren’t just good jobs, they’re great jobs. These are jobs that help people to live longer, more productive lives, and they pay on average 36 percent higher than other private sector careers. In short, our support for bio is smart fiscal policy.
But we can’t rest on our laurels. We have taken big steps in the right direction, but I don’t want to just take steps in the right direction, I want to take leaps!
This first decade of bioscience research has built a solid foundation. We have the building blocks in place. We now need to push forward into a new phase.
That next frontier is better commercialization of our research. Research is critical. However, we need to take it to the next level. We’ve done well, but I’m challenging everybody in this room to work harder to turn that research into jobs and new industries. That is how we will all be judged by the public.
We have the pieces in place to make major strides in deliverables like personalized medicine and the early detection and prevention of diseases like cancer. But we must do a better job of pulling our various parts together into a tighter focus to commercialize the technology and research that we are producing.
We have the talent right here, right now. We are doing the high-level, cutting-edge research on genes, chromosomes and proteins to set Arizona apart as a world leader in this arena. We have the engineering, imaging and medical talent right here in our universities to spin these findings out into products, companies and jobs that will not only change the world for the better, but transform and elevate our economy.
We, together as a community, have committed to our future in biosciences. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.
So it’s a fair question to ask, what does that future look like?
In the next decade, I see Phoenix becoming a global center of personalized diagnostic medicine. An example of this is the 3-D cell imaging for lung cancer detection that is currently being done by Vision Gate, which is located TGen’s headquarters. The City of Phoenix invested in two pieces of this new equipment, which is available at VisionGate for researchers to use.
These technologies will be researched here, developed here, manufactured here, sold here and deployed here. A good example of this is Molecular Profiling Institute, a joint venture with TGen and IGC, and their first spin-off. Caris Life Sciences bought that company, which now employs more than 50 people in high-wage, high-skill jobs here in metro-Phoenix.
However, it remains true that much of the technology we develop here in the Phoenix region goes to market from other cities, such as San Francisco, instead of from our own region. We have to work together, collaboratively, as a region, marshalling all our resources to ensure that what gets developed here also gets commercialized here.
As we improve on biosciences, we must never forget one of our greatest resources: our existing business community. Development of our biosciences sector – and other new business sectors – is built on the foundation of our existing businesses, which will prosper with the growth of biosciences. And we will do it regionally.
For example, research from TGen in Phoenix could be developed at the Innovations Incubator in Chandler. The clinical trials could be in Scottsdale or Tucson. When the product is ready for manufacture, it might find a home near the Mayo Clinic in north Phoenix. Supplies, parts, marketing and transportation all would come from existing businesses.
If our regional partners work together, there’s nothing that can stop us. There are good things happening all around the state. We have great incubators in Chandler, Peoria and Phoenix at Gateway Community College. We have Tucson’s U of A BioPark. We are putting more focus on STEAM education around the state. As we do this, our existing businesses will grow and prosper too. It all works together.
The City of Phoenix has other roles to play too. For example, the State made difficult choices to balance the budget, but the real affect is that hospitals have lost access to federal dollars for low income patients. As a direct result, people have lost access to quality health care, and hospital jobs are being lost – good, high paying jobs. The City of Phoenix has a role to play in conjunction with businesses to find creative solutions that will allow our hospitals to access these critical federal dollars.
We also have to ensure that our workers are ready with the skills employers need. We need the people in this room to work closely together with the City to make sure our job training programs are aligned with the needs of the biosciences sector.
Smart economic development is a team sport. Government, business, employees and schools all bring different roles, skills and talents. But if we don’t work as a coherent team, we simply cannot compete effectively. And when we do work as a team, Phoenix – and our partners in this region and throughout the state – will be unstoppable.
This is why the very first thing I announced after my inauguration on January 3rd was a major new collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, Arizona State University and our friends in the private sector. Working together, our goal is to develop the “Desert Ridge Bio-science and Technology Collaborative. This will include a major employment center – and a second biomedical campus for our city – on 600 acres in North Phoenix.
We want to maximize the use of the land around Mayo to create the highest number of good jobs. If we leverage this opportunity correctly, we can create sustainable long-term economic dividends for our kids, and for their kids.
This is a pivotal moment for us. If we can add to our partnership with our downtown campuses – including ASU, IGC, U of A, the Arizona Cancer Center, T-Gen and so many more – in a big way, this is our best opportunity to successfully compete with cities that are leading in this area – like San Francisco, Boston and Houston.
The key to our success going forward – how we will make those leaps – is working together as a region and as a state. I am calling for a new era of regional and state-wide thinking and leadership. The State, Counties, Cities and towns all have to be successful in this new strategy. We are going to sink or swim together, not as individual cities. Our new thinking must permeate all our decision making from this point forward.
It is self-defeating to pass individual policies that try to take something from other cities. As I said, our region and state are in competition with international economies, not our neighboring cities and states. That’s where we’re going. This is not a choice, this is where we are headed and we have to be ready for that international competition.
I know the mayors here today are rooting for our success on bio-science Downtown, and with the new partnership we have announced with Mayo Clinic in North Phoenix. And I am passionately rooting for the success of others on projects like the Air Force Research Lab at the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, the new clean tech companies located in the West Valley, and the continued development and growth of WL Gore’s presence in Flagstaff. And I will partner with Mayor Rothschild of Tucson to protect Raytheon’s operations in Tucson, even as the Department of Defense makes cuts.
My support for biosciences is not a one-time event. Politicians too often can rest on the reputation of a single success and all too often think in 4-year increments. I fully grasp that Bioscience is a long-term play that needs the long-term support of the City, spanning multiple mayors.
I’m an optimist. And I tell people that if Phoenix were a stock, we are a buy city. But I think the same thing about everybody in this room. The investments and hard work we have put into the biosciences are paying off, but it’s up to the people in this room to take that next leap!
Thank you. I’d be happy to answer a few questions.