CHANDLER, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Angels?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#Angelslt;/agt;--The Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio)
today announced that it has been awarded a $299,750 grant from the U.S.
Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) 2018 Regional
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Innovation Strategies (RIS) program competition to support the
creation of a sustainable seed fund for life science innovation in
Arizona. In addition to the federal contribution to the project, AZBio
and its partners will provide matching support in excess of $500,000
over the three-year term of the project. These resources support the
seed fund capital campaign, structure and operations as well as programs
designed to help Arizona life science companies prepare for the
investment process. Neither the federal funds or the matching funds may
be used to capitalize the fund itself or for direct investment into
individual companies.
The Arizona Bioscience Cluster Sustainable Seed Fund Project has
been designed to help close the funding gap for early-stage life science
and healthcare technology companies in the region’s bioscience cluster
by creating a new and sustained flow of equity-based funding in a state
that has lacked available capital from local institutional investors
since 2006. The project will also provide resources and technical
assistance to help prepare these companies for their initial funding
process as well the follow-on funding they will likely need in the
future. The availability of additional, local capital through the new
seed fund will enable select companies to achieve milestones and fuel
their growth. These companies in turn will enhance the long-term
economic vitality of the region by attracting additional private
investment to the region, creating and sustaining high-paying jobs, and
furthering the entrepreneurial culture arising from the cluster’s
growth. Five years after the end of the grant, AZBio expects that the
seed fund will have attracted $500 million in additional investment and
supported 200 high quality, 21st century jobs.
Arizona is one of the fastest growing bioscience states and one of only
15 states that increased their total employment base by more than 5,000
in the period from 2001 – 2016. While the perception of industry
strength through job growth is important, having the assets to support
the continuum from discovery to development to delivery is also an
essential component. These include university infrastructure, academic
research talent, contract research and contract manufacturing resources,
clinical partners, an industry talent pool spanning from entry to middle
and senior management, and locally based venture capital firms to
facilitate investment and syndication. While Arizona has made noteworthy
progress in most of these areas, the state has failed to attract or
build a significant structure for either seed or later stage investment
at life science scale.
“Resolving this challenge is a key focus of the Arizona Bioscience
Roadmap Steering Committee and AZBio’s Board of Directors,” stated Joan
Koerber-Walker who serves as president and CEO of AZBio and on the Board
of Trustees of the Healthcare Impact Foundation. “Creating a mechanism
for a sustained flow of early-stage capital for life science innovation
and a pipeline of investment-ready companies is the purpose of Arizona
Bioscience Cluster Sustainable Seed Fund Project.”
The project design is the result of a multi-year global benchmarking
effort led by the Stetson Family Office (SFO) and AZBio. The net result
was the observation that while the traditional seed fund model of “raise
and deploy” provides significant stimulus to the innovation cluster it
supports, once the funds have been fully invested and no new investment
dollars are available, the stimulus impact wanes. To counter this
effect, AZBio, working with SFO, developed an endowment-based model to
provide a sustained stream of early-stage funding that could span
generations of innovation. The result was the creation of the Healthcare
Impact Foundation (HCIF) by the Stetson Family Office. As a 5013c public
charity, HCIF will support a portfolio of endowments that will invest in
early-stage life science innovation in communities with high growth
potential as well as focused endowments to address global health
challenges including, but not limited to, cancer, diabetes, and
Alzheimer’s disease. AZBio is working with SFO to build the first of the
endowments under the HCIF umbrella, Healthcare Impact Foundation-Arizona
or AZ-HCIF.
Once it reaches its endowment goal of $200 million, AZ-HCIF can be
expected to yield $10 million or more in available early stage capital
for Arizona life science innovator companies and other support for the
Arizona life science ecosystem every year. The project also includes
additional fundraising goals for direct impact funds that can accelerate
the process while the endowment builds and matures.
“This project will help accelerate momentum across the cluster by
complementing the recent EDA support that has helped to build best-in
class incubators,” stated Russ Yelton, chair of the AZ-HCIF board of
trustees. “The availability of additional, local capital will enable
select companies to achieve milestones and fuel their growth; these
companies in turn will enhance the long-term economic vitality of the
region by attracting additional private investment as they grow.”
The Arizona Bioscience Cluster Sustainable Seed Fund Project was
developed by AZBio and supported by AZBio’s Board of Directors, Stetson
Family Office, the Flinn Foundation, leaders from Arizona’s public and
private universities, members of the life science and business sectors,
the Arizona Commerce Authority, and the cities of Flagstaff, Peoria,
Phoenix, and Tempe, Arizona.
“A strength of Arizona’s bioindustry is the way people from across the
state come together to achieve a common goal,” stated Kristen Swingle,
chair of the AZBio Board of Directors. “We are deeply grateful to the
EDA for providing resources that can help the Arizona Bioscience
Cluster Sustainable Seed Fund Project move forward faster and look
forward to working with all of our partners to achieve its aggressive
and impactful goals.”
The full list of 2018 i6 grantees can be found on the EDA RIS 2018
i6 Challenge webpage. 2018 Seed Fund Support Program grantees are
highlighted on the 2018
Seed Fund program page.
The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE), housed within the
U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA),
leads the Regional Innovation Strategies Program to spur innovation
capacity-building activities in regions across the nation. The program
is authorized through the America COMPETES reauthorization Act of 2010,
and has received dedicated appropriations since FY2014.
About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to
lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting
competitiveness and preparing the nation's regions for growth and
success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department
of Commerce, EDA makes investments in economically distressed
communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American
innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.
About AZBio
For 15 years, the Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio) has supported
life science innovation and life science innovators in Arizona. A key
component in Arizona’s life science ecosystem, AZBio is the only
statewide organization exclusively focused on Arizona’s bioscience
industry. AZBio membership includes patient advocacy organizations, life
science innovators, educators, healthcare partners and leading business
organizations. AZBio is the statewide affiliate of the Biotechnology
Innovation Organization (BIO) and works in partnership with AdvaMed,
MDMA, and PhRMA to advance innovation and to ensure that the value
delivered from life-changing and life-saving innovation benefits people
in Arizona and around the world.
For more information visit www.AZBio.org
and www.AZBio.TV
Images available upon request.
Contacts
AZBio Media Contact:
Joan Koerber-Walker, Arizona
Bioindustry Association
480-332-9636