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Ohio has had much to celebrate in the life sciences this summer. Allow me to highlight a few such milestone moments in central Ohio. A little over a week ago, I had the pleasure of talking about the massive amounts of investment coming into the industry during a launch event for the Ohio Venture Pipeline report. Life sciences accounted for $861 million of a total of $2.4 billion raised across 19 industries that the report tracks.
Even more exciting news, of course, is a revolutionary new gene therapy treatment, developed here in Columbus at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. This treatment not only saves the lives of children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but it gives them back their childhoods, allowing their bodies to move, run and play as kids should. However, other achievements made recent headlines, too: Andelyn Biosciences, a spinoff from Nationwide Children’s Hospital that specializes in gene therapy, held a grand opening at its new development and manufacturing site in Carmenton, on Ohio State’s west campus.
I celebrated alongside others in the industry as both announcements were made, knowing that it is not hyperbole to say they each will save lives. I’m confident leaders at Andelyn would agree with me that Columbus is already a gene therapy hub.
A recent story in Columbus Business First lays that argument out beautifully. If you missed it, I hope you will read it.
As the story says: “Since 2017, the FDA has approved just six therapies that use a modified virus to deliver a corrected copy of a gene in a one-time treatment. Two were invented at Children’s.” One is the Duchenne therapy approved last month. The other treats spinal muscular atrophy type 1.
The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, the world’s leading international organization that advocates for cell and gene therapies, published a workforce analysis report in March, identifying cell and gene therapy hubs across the U.S. It called out Boston and California, long-standing centers of this work. But it also noted two smaller-but-growing hubs: Houston, Texas — and Columbus. Those two cities, the report said, “have gained traction in recent years as a result of purposeful local investments and the need for contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) to expand their talent pools.”
Gene therapies are complex and require precise science often developed over many years. They involve modifying genes in the human body that cause disease. Cell therapies are complicated, too, involving transplanting or introducing new cells into the body to fight off illnesses like cancer.
And both gene and cell therapies are getting a lot of attention worldwide for their ability to make seemingly miraculous turnarounds for patients.
But central Ohio has a claim to this sector of our life sciences industry: Many of the industry’s founders are from The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s: Dr. Jerry Mendell, who led the charge to develop the gene therapy for Duchenne; Dr. Louise Rodino-Klapac, now chief scientific officer at Sarepta; Mike Triplett, who co-founded Myonexus Therapeutics; and Erandi De Silva, Jaysson Eicholtz, (and Tim Miller – also with Ohio roots), co-founders of Forge Biologics, which is accelerating gene therapy research here.
I am a Midwesterner. I was born in Ohio, went to school at Ohio State, have made my home here, and am raising my children here. So, I get it: As Midwesterners, we are often hardwired for modesty. We can often be hesitant to claim our accomplishments. It’s certainly safer and more polite to say we are striving for something rather than excelling at it. Of course, there is always more to do in the world of cell and gene therapy research, development, and investment. In this space, there isn’t a proverbial finish line.
The fact is that central Ohio is already a hub for cell and gene therapy, and we at Ohio Life Sciences are working hard to ensure it becomes an even stronger hub. That’s why I hope you will forgive me for bragging just a bit. When I think about the new therapies that will be developed here and the many lives that will be saved as a result, I would like our Midwestern politeness to step aside, even briefly, so that we might celebrate and own the great things we have already accomplished here.
I’d be interested in knowing what other assets and capabilities we need to be bringing attention to.
Eddie Pauline
President & CEO
Ohio Life Sciences
About Ohio Life Sciences
OLS is Ohio’s life science industry trade association, representing an industry that includes more than 4,200 businesses statewide. Ohio Life Sciences convenes and advocates on behalf of biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, labs, digital health, gene and cell therapy, agricultural biotechnology, and research and academic institutions throughout Ohio. OLS is the voice representing and advocating for the common interests of our life sciences community.