Phoenix, Arizona, is the 5th largest city in the US and has been the fastest growing for 5 years in a row, largely fueled by the arrival of biotechnology and healthcare companies. “Since the early 2000s, when Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap was first drawn up, Phoenix has deliberately been attracting leading bioscience companies and start-ups,” said Claudia Whitehead, bioscience healthcare program manager for the city of Phoenix.
Phoenix’s goal is to become a national leader in fields such as precision medicine, cancer, neurosciences, bioengineering and diagnostics. And it is succeeding. Phoenix offers a deep talent base, a critical mass of entrepreneurs, enterprises and recognized institutes of clinical excellence to turn discovery into firms and products for preventing, treating and curing disease.
Since 2019, capital investment exceeding $3.7 billion has led to more than 5.7 million square feet of new bioscience healthcare facilities and to Phoenix ranking first in life-science job growth1. “By facilitating specialist building developments and attracting top talent we are creating the right environment for innovation,” said Whitehead.
The Discovery Oasis
Last year, Mayo Clinic acquired 228 acres to develop a transformative biotech corridor that will strengthen Phoenix’s reputation as a medical destination. By creating a collaborative bioscience neighborhood, the Discovery Oasis will become a melting pot of scientific endeavors.
“We have an opportunity to vision a biotech corridor, anchored by Mayo Clinic, where collaborators will push past existing boundaries in medicine and healthcare,” said Richard Gray, CEO for Mayo Clinic in Arizona. “Discovery Oasis will be fertile ground where new ideas can move rapidly from science to patient-care solutions to biomanufacturing and broad application.”
Additionally, Mayo Clinic is developing its largest capital expansion project. By 2024, Mayo Clinic will double the size of the Phoenix campus to more than 3 million square feet and add 100 new patient beds.
The nearby Health Futures Center features a flagship MedTech Accelerator program of the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care, designed to empower medical start-ups to navigate challenges while bringing forth life-changing health innovations.
Midtown Phoenix
Midtown is home to Arizona’s largest concentration of research and teaching hospitals, and to over 12 institutes of research excellence. The Ivy Brain Tumor Center at Dignity Health’s Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) is home to the largest phase 0 clinical trials program in the world, and its new headquarters, opening in 2023, will become the world’s largest translational research center dedicated solely to brain tumor drug development and treatment. “Our new accelerated clinical trialing paradigm partners with biopharma companies to get drugs that deliver on their promise to brain cancer patients as rapidly as possible,” said Nader Sanai, director of the Ivy Brain Tumor Center.
Adjacent to BNI, Park Central houses Creighton University’s new Health Sciences Campus, the WearTech Applied Research Center medical device lab, and has 80,000 square feet of divisible lab space available for lease. This provides ideal space for growing medtech companies seeking to commercialize emerging healthcare technology and biomedical innovations.
Phoenix Bioscience Core: driving translational discovery
In downtown Phoenix is the 30-acre Phoenix Bioscience Core (PBC), home to a growing number of life-science companies, eight colleges from Arizona’s three publicly funded research universities (ASU, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona), educational organizations, hospitals and government agencies focusing on research on cancer, vaccines, genomics and precision medicine.
Fig. 1 | Phoenix is among the country’s top emerging life sciences markets and a top destination for investment. It has attracted a critical mass of biotech and healthcare companies and created bio-hubs for world-class innovators.
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is part of the City of Hope clinical research center and the International Genomics Consortium (IGC), and these are the founding institutions of the PBC. They are committed to translating genomic discoveries into cures for patients and have spun-out over 30 companies. Under the leadership of Jeffrey M. Trent, and in collaboration with key Arizona partners, TGen is at the forefront of precision-medicine clinical trials for rare cancers and other diseases.
Research, academic and clinical facilities at the PBC continue to grow; two million of its six million-square-foot buildout has been completed. The latest addition, 850 PBC, comprises 227,000 square feet of lab-enabled space and includes the new Connect Labs by Wexford, a scale-in-place space for innovative companies to collaborate with public and academic researchers and accelerate their discoveries.
Phoenix has created a perfect environment for life-science companies to collaborate and succeed. “With more people moving into Phoenix every day, there is no shortage of bright minds ready to advance the bioscience ecosystem,” Whitehead said. Access to experienced talent is one reason companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Procter & Gamble (P&G), Caris Life Sciences and W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (Gore) are thriving in Phoenix (Fig. 1). BMS has just embarked on building a new biologics manufacturing facility in the city. “Our dedication to advancing the biosciences over the past 20 years has paid off, Phoenix is recognized as one of the fastest-growing emerging life-science markets in the nation,” she concluded.