A new industry association aims to help the mid-valley cash in on its potential

By BENNETT HALL
Corvallis Gazette-Times

ALBANY — Synthetech is gearing up for a growth spurt.

The Albany company, which makes chemical ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry, recently invested half a million dollars to expand its production capacity and has been adding process operators at a steady clip, with about 30 on staff now compared with nine just three years ago.

Despite taking a loss last year, Synthetech has a healthy backlog of orders in the pipeline and is looking to bounce back strong — if it can keep pace with demand. One potential chokepoint: a shortage of qualified workers.

“The issue is finding really well-trained operators,” said Gregory Hahn, the company’s president and CEO.

It’s a lament heard throughout the state’s fledgling bioscience industry, which includes medical device manufacturers, drug development companies, research labs and health care networks. While the sector has been identified as a key emerging cluster in the Oregon Business Plan, it has yet to come into its own. Other obstacles include a lack of chemistry “wet lab” space available for lease, and limited access to capital.

In several parts of the state, however — including the mid-valley — the industry is organizing to address the challenges that are holding it back.

To jumpstart the process, the Portland-based Oregon Bioscience Association has formed three regional chapters, including the Willamette Valley Bioscience Industry Consortium.

Embracing an area from Salem to Eugene, WVBIC (pronounced “wave-bic”) has held two meetings so far and signed up nearly two dozen members, with potentially dozens more in the wings.

“I have a prospect list of 67 companies,” said Barbara Bessey of Linn-Benton Community College, the new group’s coordinator. “Every time I talk to someone, they give me new prospects.”

Although the industry is just beginning to get off the ground here, Bessey is convinced that the Willamette Valley could become a national leader in the field. She ticks off a list of assets to support that claim:

• Research coming out of Oregon State University, the University of Oregon and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute that could be commercialized by new or existing companies.

• A core of established firms such as Synthetech, Tec Labs and Oregon Freeze Dry in Albany, AVI BioPharma and Siga Technologies in Corvallis, Gene Tools in Philomath and Invitrogen in Eugene.

• A pool of graduates in science, engineering and business coming out of area colleges and universities.

• A reservoir of engineering and manufacturing expertise developed by Hewlett-Packard, Wah Chang and other large employers.

• An emerging nexus of biofuels and other agriculture-based businesses.

• Samaritan Health’s plans for a multidisciplinary medical school campus in Lebanon.

“That sets the stage,” Bessey said. “Our region, the Willamette Valley, is poised to become one of the leading bioscience concentrations in the country.”

A lot of hurdles remain to be cleared before that can happen. A state- and industry-sponsored study released this month found that “Oregon has a key strength in bioscience manufacturing” but faces several challenges in trying to capitalize on that advantage.

The industry needs a deeper pool of workers, especially in senior technical and management positions; it needs greater access to in-state sources of early-stage financing; it needs incubators equipped with wet lab and clean room space to nurture startups; and it needs to strengthen the linkages both among biotech companies and between the industry and the state’s research institutions.

Progress is being made on many of those fronts.

The Oregon Bioscience Association has developed a number of turnkey technical training programs that can be transplanted from Portland to other parts of the state as needed. WVBIC’s Bessey is working to bring a number of those courses to Linn-Benton Community College.

Conversations sparked by the first two WVBIC meetings already are leading to increased collaboration within the industry, Bessey said, including an offer by Oregon Freeze Dry to make some of its sophisticated wet lab space available to other local companies.

And discussions are under way on setting up a networking event at OSU to showcase current research projects and connect companies with potential employees.

That’s exactly the kind of thing that Synthetech, a longtime Oregon Bioscience Association member, was hoping to see from WVBIC.

“It’s a small world here, but we’re partnering with each other, trying to help each other succeed and move this infant biotech industry in Oregon forward,” Hahn said..

“We have a good start on the science end of the industry. Now we just need a few more companies to balance that out.”

Mid-valley economic development officials see definite potential in a bioscience cluster. Unlike other business sectors, bioscience has enough companies in the area to form a foundation for sustained growth.

“Most of them are in the onesie-twosie range. When you get to high tech there’s around 100, and when you get to biotech we’re probably in the 50 range,” said John Sechrest of the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition.

“Having a consortium that’s doing networking, doing advocacy, really can help move things forward,” Sechrest added. “It demonstrates a certain critical mass that can, all by itself, help recruit someone to the area.”

Bill Ford, director of the Businesses Enterprise Center, said the Corvallis-based incubator has a number of small biotech tenants that are long on technical knowhow but could use some seasoned management talent.

“What we’re lacking in the area right now are (experienced) CEOs and CFOs and COOs,” Ford said. “We’ve got the ideas, we’ve got the technology, we just can’t turn it right now.”

All those things will come, said Bob Lanier, executive director of the Oregon Bioscience Association.

“We really have to strengthen our industry and grow what we have and ultimately enable companies to spin off from institutions and attract companies to come to Oregon,” said Bob Lanier, executive director of the Oregon Bioscience Association.

“There’s tons of talent in Oregon, lots of scientists want to move to Oregon, and if you focus on developing what you have, good things will happen.”

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.