Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Biz Journal article on bioscience in Hillsborough:
Morning Edition
Bioscience building initiative gains ground in Hillsborough
Feb 23, 2015, 6:26am EST Updated: Feb 23, 2015, 7:00am EST
Print Editor- Tampa Bay Business Journal
There’s strong bioscience research going on Hillsborough County, but limited options to find out about it.
That’s why the county commission unanimously approved a measure that could lead to creation of a biomedical depository for clinical trials — a sort of one-stop shop for patients to learn about research that could benefit them and an initiative to draw more bioscience companies to the county.
The medical community currently posts data on trials to a federally run website, but it’s difficult and time-consuming to find a specific clinical trial in a local community, said Commissioner Ken Hagan at the board’s Feb. 18 meeting. “The purpose is to create a local depository, which will provide the community with [information about] the trials being conducted, answering basic questions about who is conducting the study, what is being studied, why it’s being studied and when it’s being studied,” Hagan said. “The results of these studies can provide individuals or patients with more options.”
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It’s also an opportunity to build the local bioscience cluster.
“Big companies follow big data,” Hagan said. “This depository would enhance what is going on industrywide in this community and would be an incentive for companies to take notice and want to be located in this cluster.”
Commissioners unanimously approved Hagan’s motion to expand a study by the independent research organization, the Battelle Institute, of the local bioscience industry to look into the viability of a biomedical depository. Hagan said he expected it would take four to six months to complete the work.
“I think if we’re successful in modeling this and the Battelle study does help us, we’re going to see a lot more demand and activity in the USF area and downtown, and it will entice more private businesses to come in and partner with us,” said Commission Chair Sandy Murman.
