Executives of midwestern companies involved in biotechnology met in Chicago Wednesday to promote the Chicago area and the Midwest as the biggest biotechnology hub in the U.S.

At an annual conference called the iBIO IndEx, the CEO of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization, David Miller, said in an interview,"We think that this place has all the makings for doing that and our goal is to orchestrate that and get people to work together."

The organization comprises more than 150 companies involved in biotechnology. Speakers at the iBIO declared that the Midwest already has the talent and capacity to become one of the most important biotech areas in the world.

"We possess deep expertise and plentiful resources to develop all the principle areas in biotech like agriculture and bio energy, climate and environment, drug discovery and biotech-based therapeutics," University of Illinois President Joseph White said.

However, there are some challenges. According to Miller, the first one is creating a bigger startup community.

"We are good at bringing global companies but we need to be good in bringing small companies as well," said Miller. "There is no reason we can't, because we have all the ingredients. It's a matter of assembling those ingredients together to make the cake."

Norbert Riedel, iBIO chairman and senior vice president and chief scientific officer of Baxter International Inc., said people often underappreciate biotech companies such as Baxter and Abbott Laboratories. Riedel stated that these two companies have provided more CEOs to biotech companies in this country than any other company. And the Midwest also has Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Astellas Pharma Inc., Hospira Inc., and TAP Pharmaceuticals Inc., among others.

"We don't have as much startups as the west coast and east coast, and a big push of iBIO is to allow this to happen because that makes a big part of the biotech community that we want to build," Riedel said in an interview.

One strategy launched last June by iBIO is Propel, an initiative that already has 15 companies involved. Based on the San Diego-based Connect, it recruits people with experience in the field to coach entrepreneurs, helping them get connections and find good advice, to shape their business plans and to help them find financing.

iBIO is also trying to leverage the enormous access to world markets that Chicago has in order to attract more expansions.

"That's why Siemens is putting their diagnostics unit here. Consolidating those big companies is a big win because we can use natural advantages of Chicago to bring big companies here," Miller asserted.

One of Illinois's main competitive advantages is talent, the conferees agreed.

iBIO is aware of the importance of research for biotech companies and so is trying to make sure that the state continues to make sound investments in the research base.

"We are trying to align the capabilities of the educational or what's going on in schools with the needs of the companies in medical, agricultural, environmental and industrial areas so that the kids when they get out of school will be well trained and will know what they have to do in order to get those jobs," Miller said.

Cyprus-born Panaylotis P. Constantinides, founder and principal of Biopharmaceutical & Drug Delivery Consulting LLC, said, "This is an exciting and interesting time in biotechnology and biomedical nanotechnology, but a lot of research still needs to be done."

iBIO is also trying to promote good public policy both in Springfield and in Washington D.C., especially good patent protection, to encourage the research needed to develop new products and grow.

"We need science-based regulation that is regulating food and medical companies based on science, in fact, instead of based on rumor and innuendo," Miller said.

He stated that underlying all of these goals, both on the business side and the education side, there is an effort to develop strong interactions within the biotech community.

"In the past, Illinois and the Midwest were characterized by what I call silos of excellence," said Miller. "This means that all those companies, research organizations and consortia were doing wonderful work and nobody was talking to each other."

According to Miller, thanks to initiatives such as the iBIO IndEx, people can talk to each other, trade business cards, go to a room and meet and take notes on what they do.

"It's great to see that there are companies out there using biotechnology and nanotechnology to develop drugs are more cost effective and you can prove the efficacy and safety in shorter time," said Priya Bhutani, director of business development at Medpoint Communications Inc.

"This breaks down those 'silos of excellence' and makes people interact in a very energetic way looking for new ideas and discovery," Miller stated.