In late February, Canon Healthcare USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon, announced it would buy and renovate the IBM Building in downtown Cleveland as the foundation for the company’s new comprehensive imaging resource center. It’s just the latest in a string of life sciences growth and wins for the Cleveland Innovation District, which Canon Healthcare said was a chief draw when the company launched its U.S. headquarters there in 2023.
This is a perfect example of why, over the past two years, JobsOhio and the Ohio Life Sciences Association (OLS), partnered and launched the Ohio Discovery Corridor, connecting the state’s three life sciences innovation districts in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
We aren’t the first state to do this, as life sciences hubs regularly tout the advantages of research clusters. However, by integrating our metros along the Ohio Discovery Corridor, we amplify our offering and stand out with world-class universities, federal research institutes, cutting-edge companies and 14 top-ranked hospital systems.
The corridor is fuel for economic, workforce and medical breakthrough developments and is already expected to graduate 47,500 STEM grads, create 60,000 jobs and add $9 billion in economic impact over the next decade. This density of opportunity and expertise also becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as innovative companies like Canon Healthcare look at and move to Ohio for growth.
The Cleveland Innovation District, anchored by the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University and MetroHealth, is certainly doing its part. All told, these anchors are expected to make a $1 billion investment over the next decade. For example, driving through town you’ll see two new Cleveland Clinic research facilities are coming into view along 100th Street. Cleveland State is investing $30 million in a new bioengineering center and Case Western’s 11000 Cedar life sciences incubator is renovated and full of new tenants and researchers.
Meanwhile, Canon Healthcare’s new 43,000-square-foot building, located at the intersection of E.105th St. and Cedar Ave. in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood, will host the company’s main office and serve as a hub for developing further U.S. and global collaborations, including at the Cleveland Clinic and beyond.
To be clear, with this initiative our life sciences industry is stronger together, and can provide the support for companies and researchers looking to move or grow in Ohio. The Ohio Discovery Corridor of course reaches beyond Cleveland, and is enabled by $3 billion in investment from anchor institutions, the state of Ohio, OLS and JobsOhio.
The Cincinnati Innovation District, for instance, includes the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital – the #1 children’s hospital in the country – UC Health, other startups and innovative pharmaceutical and medical device companies. The Columbus Innovation District located on The Ohio State University campus and anchored by, among others, the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, is driving medical breakthroughs and partnerships in central Ohio and will be home to Ohio Life Science’s first Industry Hub and Learning Center.
I’m thrilled with how these partnerships are shaping up and the momentum they’re creating across the state. If you’d like to learn more about this initiative, and how to connect, please check out https://www.ohiodiscoverycorridor.com/.
By Eddie Pauline, President and CEO of Ohio Life Sciences
