Kansas City urged to intensify efforts on life sciences

? The Kansas City area must intensify its commitment to life sciences to become a major center for life sciences research and development, an economic development consultant said.

“There are individuals and/or organizations now present in the greater Kansas City region who have global and national prominence,” said Richard Seline, founder of Washington-based New Economy Strategies. “And those individuals or organizations, once organized, could propel the region forward in less than 18 months.”

Seline was the keynote speaker at the annual dinner of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, which is coordinating the area’s life sciences push. About 700 people attended the event Thursday at the Fairmont Hotel.

Bill Duncan, president of the Life Sciences Institute, said the organization’s eight stakeholder institutions — including Kansas University — had more than doubled their research expenditures since 1999 and were on their way to developing a critical mass of $500 million in research.

“At present, our key stakeholder institutions and private life sciences companies have committed more than $1 billion to ongoing or approved capital projects related to the life sciences,” Duncan said. “In addition, the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute has secured and/or assisted in securing $11.3 million in federal earmarks for laboratory equipment at our key stakeholder institutions since September of 2001.”

Duncan added that the Life Sciences Institute was developing a 10-year strategic plan.

Seline, whose firm has written a life sciences and convergent technologies implementation plan for the Kansas City area, said the region was blessed with a “depth of experience and talent here who fully understand the emerging health-care delivery systems.”

He cited companies such as Sprint Corp., Cerner Corp., Bayer Animal Health and Quintiles Transnational Corp. as examples.

Seline said Kansas City also should take advantage of its expertise in clinical drug trials and regulatory management of drug discoveries, and work to become a national center for clinical trial product development.

The Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute key stakeholder institutions are:¢ Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics¢ Midwest Research Institute¢ University of Health Sciences¢ Kansas University Medical Center¢ Kansas University¢ University of Missouri-Kansas City¢ Saint Luke’s Hospital¢ Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

In addition, Seline said Kansas City should become a “health metroplex” that links state agencies, major employers, hospitals and clinics with outcome-based health-care knowledge.

Such linkage would help identify ways to prevent and treat disease in more cost-effective ways, he said.

“When we began six months ago on this project, I was just as curious as any outsider as to what is truly present in Kansas City on which to be competitive,” Seline said. “Six months later, I’m extremely optimistic about where Greater Kansas City can be over the next 18 to 36 months. But this will only occur if each institution, each civic leader and each political leader concurs that this is the scenario on which to work.”