Chicago Gets State Funding for BioTech Incubator (Woodridge, Deerfield: fit in, real estate)

[marothisu]

The state is giving $3.5 million to help form a BioTech incubator somewhere downtown, possibly in the Merchandise Mart near 1871 and the future home of Google/Motorola Mobility. 25,000 sq ft (half the size of 1871) and modeled after 1871. I guess it's not bad that this is near Northwestern Medical and not terribly far from Rush Medical/Medical District and U of C medical. Thoughts?

Some quotes

Tentative plans for the facility were first announced almost a year ago, and insiders say it's taken that long not only to line up initial funding but to woo top medical and pharmaceutical companies to participate and recruit an executive director. He is Patrick Flavin, a principal in Flavin Ventures LLC, a family-run life-sciences venture-capital outfit in Woodridge.

The effort has been worth it, says J.B. Pritzker, managing partner of Pritzker Group Venture Capital and chairman of ChicagoNext, the new ventures unit at World Business Chicago.
"It's going to happen," Mr. Pritzker said in an interview. "It has a lot of support in the pharmaceutical and bioscience community. The startups are thrilled. This could be a galvanizing place" for a city that long has boasted of its biotech potential but never quite delivered.

Another question is the level of commitment from big local players in the industry, including Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie Inc., Baxter International Inc., Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. and Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.
All "have been at the table" the last year and generally are supportive, I'm told. Mr. Pollet said some have signed letters of commitment, but he declined to name them, saying only that private capital invested in the center eventually will exceed the state's backing. It's worth noting that among members of the center's board will be Norbert Riedel, who recently retired as chief scientific officer at Deerfield-based Baxter. (He also is a director of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization.)
In an interview last year, Paragon Pharmaceuticals LLC CEO Jeff Aronin, who will co-chair the center board along with Horizon Pharma Inc. CEO Tim Walbert, said such companies need to be involved for the center to live up to its potential.

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[chet everett]

I have mixed feelings.

I know that there are much "sexier" firms that are very well financed that have high profile anti-cancer drugs and therapies for things like Macular Degeneration ( http://www.gene.com/patients/disease-education )

Northern Cook / Lake county already have Abbott, AbbVie, Takeda, Astellas and other, but many of the products that firms like Baxter focus on are pretty run of the mill -- Product List | Healthcare Professionals | Baxter U.S. The last thing that is needed is a "retiree" from a firm that has boring old products...

The general level of "success" that the Pritzker clan has had OUTSIDE of Hyatt, other real estate and "old economy" ventures is similarly questionable -- Pritzker Organization to Buy Steel-Services Firm TMS - WSJ.com Goldman Sachs, Advent to Buy TransUnion - Bloomberg Companies / Pritzker Group Venture Capital

This seems like yet another effort to try to use the massive amount of space in the Merchandise Mart for "something hip" but old guys with ties to Rahm with little regard to the real needs of folks that are active on the forefront of the biotech world -- much smaller cities seem to be way way way ahead of our efforts and I can't help but think that some of the same things that made Silicon Valley the draw it is for computer related firms are largely absent in Chicago... San Diego Biotechnology Network: Biotech Events, Jobs, News, Companies, Directory, Blog & Calendar