High Biomedical potential in Spokane- Dr. Fred Silverstein of Frazier Healthcare Ventures says High-impact firms have plenty of reasons to grow here.

It wouldn’t take too much work for the Spokane area to grow high-impact biomedical companies, a Seattle venture capital manager said Thursday.

Tom Sowa
Staff writer Spokesman Review

It doesn’t take a sprawling medical school to spawn young medical companies developing new products, Dr. Fred Silverstein said during a breakfast meeting of a Spokane biotech group.

San Diego has done it, and other areas around the country are following similar plans.

"You need to encourage entrepreneurial activity" and find ways to accent the area’s strongest qualities, Silverstein urged an audience of 45 people at the Ridpath Hotel.

Silverstein is a general partner with Frazier Healthcare Ventures, one of the largest venture capital firms in the Northwest. The firm has about $400 million under management and has invested $50 million to date.

None of those investments is in Eastern Washington or Idaho, but that could change, Silverstein said.

Silverstein’s visit from Seattle was hosted by the Biotechnology Association of the Spokane Area http://www.wabio.com/industry/directory/companybyid?companyid=283 . The nonprofit group advocates for the growth of a regional biomedical industry.

Before teaching medicine at the University of Washington, Silverstein spent two years as a doctor assigned to Fairchild Air Force Base 35 years ago.

Spokane then and Spokane now left him with the same impression: "You have a wonderful quality of life and a lot of people with a very positive attitude about wanting to see things happen here."

After the meeting, Silverstein ticked off other major assets that will help lay the groundwork for future biotech and medical-device companies.

•Spokane is the center for hundreds of clinics and specialists. "It’s a magnet for patients from all around here," he said. That creates a base for studies by drug manufacturers or other medical therapies in treating disease or attacking medical conditions, such as diabetes or obesity.

•Area hospitals have become centers of expertise in cardiology. That field will continue drawing huge interest by federal researchers and investors.

•This area has created "very interesting technology" in the medical area, a slice of which Silverstein discovered during a daylong tour after the morning meeting.

•Spokane has affordable office space and an active business incubator — the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute.

"A new company could rent space at SIRTI at very affordable rates. Plus the campus there is just beautiful."

The community needs to find investors and venture firms to seed the companies and nourish the growth, Silverstein said.

That will take time. "But success breeds success. Once you get one or two hits, others will see how it happened and the process will continue," he said.

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Biotech and Biomed in the Spokane Region

http://www.spokanedc.org/industries/biotech.php

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•Business writer Tom Sowa can be reached at (509) 459-5492 or by e-mail at [email protected].

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=020703&ID=s1299372&cat=section.business