Turning Kansas City Into Biomed Valley.

CAN AMERICAN CENTURY founder and chairman Jim Stowers turn Kansas City, MO, into Biomed Valley?

First Stowers built American Century Cos. into a $3 billion mutual fund giant. Then he beat prostate cancer and stood by wife Virginia as she fought breast cancer. The Stowers might reasonably have spent their golden years recuperating from these life experiences. Instead, the duo founded a world-class biomedical institute dedicated to research of genetic diseases, including cancer, that is a model of philanthropy and local economic growth benevolent CEOs might consider emulating during--or before--their own retirement.

The Stowers Institute, opened in April, uses high-tech facilities, an innovative profit-sharing program for resident scientists, and a generous endowment from the Stowers to create a center capable of generating $1 billion in research annually within 20 years. The Institute plans to launch a separate company by the end of 2001 called Biomed Valley Discovery.

The Institute promises scientists a 50/50 share of profits from commercialization of their ideas. "If you don't develop and market these discoveries, you're not going to get the best scientists," Stowers says.

To increase the likelihood of commercialization, Biomed Valley Discovery will take appropriate intellectual property, patents, and research findings from the Institute and match them with initiatives at area universities, hospitals, corporations, or outside capital. "I want this to be recognized as the best place in the country for biomedical research in the next 25 years," says Stowers.