HUDSON VALLEY BECOMES BIOTECH HOT SPOT
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Proximity to World-Class
Research Institutions
Among the reasons the Hudson Valley
is such an “undiscovered gem” for biotech firms
is its strategic location, according to Campagiorni. Key
is the region’s proximity to some of the world’s
premier academic and research institutions such as Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia University, Weill
Cornell Medical Center and Rockefeller University, he said.
“Many biotech companies spin out of research done
in these centers and principals want to remain close to
the resources and intellectual capital they provide.”
Just north of the city in Valhalla, N.Y., is New York Medical
College, the only biomedical research center between New
York City and Albany. The university has played a key role
in building a foundation for the development of a lower
Hudson Valley biotech cluster. Basic and clinical research
are thriving at the university, which currently receives
more than $40 million annually in funding from the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), corporations and other sponsored
research programs. Some of the nation’s most prestigious
and respected biotechnology firms have collaborated with
New York Medical College to supplement existing resources
with sophisticated equipment and laboratories, find new
platform technologies and explore new product ideas.
“We foster and encourage collaboration that gives
access to the scientific infrastructure essential for rapid
progress and make it available to emergent technology companies,
venture capitalists, pharmaceutical companies and others,”
noted Rev. Msgr. Harry C. Barrett, D. Min. M.P.H., President
and CEO, New York Medical College. “All the ingredients
are here, right now,” he added.
New York-Presbyterian, the University Hospitals of Columbia
and Cornell, has a Westchester Division with a campus in
White Plains, New York. The organization has worked closely
with companies ranging from IBM to CNS, the largest central
nervous system-focused clinical trials company in the U.S.
“Information technology is at the heart of new biology,”
noted Carol Kovac, General Manager, IBM Healthcare and Life
Sciences. “The Westchester region allows IBM to collaborate
with world leaders in healthcare, such as New York-Presbyterian
Hospital, in their quest to translate research data and
clinical information into knowledge that can be used to
better understand diseases and find cures.”
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