Regional Leaders Form Initiative to Make Central Indiana World-Renowned in Life Sciences; Projects Totaling $1.5 Billion Already Committed to Region.

Business, Health/Medical, High-Tech & Education Editors

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INDIANAPOLIS--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 13, 2002

Leaders of Central Indiana's top research, academic and economic development organizations today announced an effort to develop the region as a world-class center for the life sciences industry.

The Central Indiana Life Sciences Initiative -- led by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), the City of Indianapolis, Indiana University (IU), Purdue University (PU) and the Indiana Health Industry Forum (IHIF) -- will seek to increase the number of jobs, businesses, and research opportunities in the life sciences industry in Central Indiana.

"Life sciences" include pharmaceuticals, medical devices and instruments, hospitals and laboratories, food and nutrition, organic and agricultural chemicals and research and testing.

"Central Indiana can set the standard for this high-tech, high-growth industry in the 21st century," said Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. "From our world-class companies to our outstanding universities to our groundbreaking research projects, Indianapolis is poised to be a world leader in life sciences."

A February 2002 study by the Battelle Memorial Institute confirms that Central Indiana has significant existing assets to be a major world player in life sciences. The study also calls for the region to have a comprehensive and integrated strategy to ensure success.

Specifically, the Initiative has four core goals:

-- Leverage sufficient investment capital for life sciences projects.

-- Retain and attract a critically skilled life sciences workforce.

-- Strategically market the region as a world-class health and life sciences
hub.

-- Develop successful collaborations, including a downtown research community.

The Initiative will be led by a core group, including Mayor Peterson, CICP President David Goodrich, Eli Lilly and Company Chairman, President and CEO Sidney Taurel; IU President Myles Brand; and Purdue President Martin Jischke. This group will work with other regional leaders to guide the Initiative.

CICP will head the Initiative with staff support provided by the Mayor's Office and IHIF. Initial funding of nearly $1 million comes from CICP and the City of Indianapolis. The city's contribution of $750,000 was negotiated through changes to an incentive settlement with Sallie Mae, which purchased the former Indianapolis-based USA Group.

The Initiative immediately will form four committees focused on commercialization and technology transfer, venture capital funding, workforce development and marketing.

"Life sciences makes sense for Central Indiana, as well as the rest of the state," said Goodrich, whose CICP membership includes leaders of some of the region's largest companies. "Indianapolis has a strong history of building successful public-private partnerships to reach a common goal. Today, we start from a position of strength."

The Battelle study pointed out that the life sciences industry already is the state's largest private employer -- with more than 82,000 Indiana employees -- and pays 2.5 times higher than the average worker salary in Central Indiana.

Indiana also ranks second nationally in surgical appliances (includes orthopedics) and sales, fifth in pharmaceutical sales and ninth in surgical and medical instrument sales and employees.

Other assets include:

-- World-class companies, such as Lilly, Guidant, Dow

AgroSciences, Clarian Health Partners, Hill-Rom, Anthem, Cook

Group and Covance.

-- Central Indiana's burgeoning "life sciences corridor," which

stretches from Bloomington through Indianapolis to West

Lafayette. The corridor includes the recent creation of IU's

Indiana Genomics Initiative and Purdue's Discovery Park, now

linked by a high-performance optical fiber network, known as

I-Light.

-- Infrastructure, including a new state-of-the-art airport

terminal to be completed by 2006.

-- Financial assets, including e.Lilly, IU Foundation venture

capital, Purdue University's Trask Venture Fund, Lilly

Endowment Inc. and the state's 21st Century Research and

Technology Fund.

The Initiative also will grow with other collaborative efforts, such as the "Indiana Proteomics Consortium," a recently announced venture between Lilly, IU's Advanced Research Technology Institute and the Purdue Research Foundation to create instruments and methods to measure "proteomics," the study of proteins. The consortium will greatly assist pharmaceutical companies and others in creating better drugs.

In addition, more than $1.5 billion already has been invested or committed through 2005 to projects that will jump-start the Initiative, including:

-- $1 billion from Eli Lilly and Company, including 7,500 new

jobs and bricks-and-mortar projects, such as research

facilities. In three years, Lilly has invested more than $900

million and will exceed its $1 billion commitment in 2002.

Lilly's bricks-and-mortar investments include a $100 million

laboratory, currently under construction, for drug discovery

activities.

-- $150 million in bricks-and-mortar projects at the Indiana

University School of Medicine over the next four years,

including a $25 million Biomedical Research and Training

Center, a $30 million Stark Neurosciences Research Institute,

a $24 million Information Sciences Building, and Research 3, a

$75 million, 250,000-square-foot building focusing on cancer

research. The Biomedical Research and Training Center will

open by the end of this year and the Stark Neurosciences

Research Institute will open in 2003. The other buildings are

in the planning stages.

-- $105 million from the Lilly Endowment to support the Indiana

Genomics Initiative at Indiana University's School of

Medicine.

-- $50 to $100 million in venture capital being raised for life

sciences in the region by several partners, including the

Indiana University Foundation.

-- $65 million Clarian Health Partners' Clinical Laboratory

Services Building, housing clinical pathology services for

Methodist, IU and Riley, will begin construction in 2003 and

open in 2005.

-- $51 million, primarily from private sources, to construct the

Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park.

-- $34 million monorail constructed by Clarian Health Partners,

which will connect Methodist, IU and Riley.

-- $26 million from the Lilly Endowment to support programming at

Purdue's Discovery Park.

-- $20 million for the Advanced Research Technology Institute

(ARTI), a private, not-for-profit agent for Indiana

University, to build an incubator devoted to life sciences.

-- $15 million to build a life sciences research facility at

Purdue.

-- $12 million invested in the Indiana Proteomics Consortium, a

commercial venture between Eli Lilly and Co., ARTI and Purdue

Research Foundation focusing on proteomics.

-- $7 million to build and operate a drug manufacturing facility

at Purdue Research Park.

"Indiana University will help the region lead the world in life sciences, not only through its strong research faculty and infrastructure, but also through technology transfer and venture capital," said Indiana University President Brand. "We are committed to enhancing the state's economic development and improving the quality of life for our residents."

Purdue University President Jischke added his support. "There is ample evidence that those regions that move quickly to take advantage of new science and technology can build highly successful partnerships among education, private business and government," he said. "These partnerships are essential to growing our state's knowledge-based economy. Purdue's strengths in the scientific and technological disciplines will add much to this Initiative, and in the process we will be a better university."

"We firmly believe that the health and life sciences industry represents a unique opportunity for Indiana to leverage and build on its strength," said Wade Lange, IHIF president, a not-for-profit private sector association with members from health companies statewide. "By working together, we can ensure that we maintain and build on the state's competitive advantage in life sciences."

For more information about the Initiative, go to www.cilsi.com