City approves new biotech corporation

The Monroe County Council unanimously voted to grant property tax abatements to BioConvergence LLC, a new start-up company that has proposed creating 170 high paying jobs in Bloomington by 2010.\nThe company was founded in August of last year by southern Indiana native Alisa Wright. She said she was thinking of about 14 different projects she wanted to start, and eventually narrowed it down to two, which are both incorporated into BioConvergence. The company will offer "cold chain storage" and biopharmaceutical product development. \nWright explained what her company would be doing with biopharmaceutical product development. \n"The active ingredient which is usually in very small quantities is hard to work with because it's typically unstable," she said. "You have to put them with inactive ingredients which help stabilize them and create some sort of shelf life. \n"The simplest way I know to explain this is: Most people don't eat handfuls of chocolate chips ... We put them in a cookie, and it creates something where you have the chocolate chips evenly distributed." \nWright said her company was focusing on biopharmaceutical molecules. \n"We call them biopharmaceutical -- they're the macromolecules" she said, explaining that they were molecules we still can't see, but that are bigger than smaller molecules. "Small molecules usually aren't temperature sensitive. They require less work to get them to be stable." \nCold chain storage refers to a series of storage units and facilities that a vaccine or other temperature-sensitive drug would occupy during its trip from the manufacturer, to an airport, to a health center and eventually to a patient. \nMark Stoops, president of the Monroe County Council, said this was a big win for the state and the community. \n"Many states have tried to focus on biological research" he said, stressing that it is growing sector that creates a lot of high paying jobs. "Governments consider it the ultimate prize."\nClint Merkel, community development director for the County Commissioner, said that BioConvergence will be good economically for Monroe County. \n"It will bring in tax money over time, and bring in income taxes next year," he said. \nMerkel explained that since the tax abatement was approved, the company will save $950,000 in taxes, but end up paying $1.4 million over its 10-year span.\n"This is an important economic win for Bloomington and Indiana and we hope this is a trend other companies in the life science industry will follow," said Patricia Miller, secretary of commerce and chief executive of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, in a press release. \nAccording to the press release, Bioconvergence will be located on Zenith Road in Park 48, close to Baxter Pharmaceutical Solutions and Cook Incorporated. \nThe community council had hopes that BioConvergence would offer opportunities to students and graduates from Ivy Tech and IU. \nWright has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector. She has worked for both Baxter and Cook, and said she hopes to use her personal contacts with both committees to offer better services to clients. \n"I have good relationships, a lot of friends there," she said. "I think it makes sense to have a regional cluster to offer to clients."\nConstruction is slated for August, with the first phased expected to reach completion in early 2006.