Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego speaks about expansion of Phoenix bioscience facilities

Phoenix has more than 5.5 million sq. feet of bioscience health care facilities under development or in the pipeline. There’s enough going on to rebrand part of the city as a “bioscience core.” We learn more from Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Phoenix Community and Economic Development Director Chris Mackay.

What is bioscience, and what does it mean to be a bioscience hub?

Mayor Kate Gallego: “There was just a study of emerging bioscience markets, we are number one in life science job growth, in companies that are spilling out of our universities, the City of Phoenix invested in bringing T-Gen to our core, and we’ve had 30 companies come out of there. We have one company that’s on the cutting edge of m-RNA technology, which we’ve all seen over the last year as the place to be. Another that can help you diagnose cancer early, when it’s easier to treat. This is good news for people who live in our city, who want the best possible health care.”

Gallego also noted that companies from across the world are flocking to Phoenix, looking for a potential foothold in the North American market.

“The fact that we are attracting that talent made sure that we, we needed to communicate effectively that we are more than a medical school, although the medical school continues to be a core.”

Why the rebranding into “The bioscience core?”

Mackay: “When we first started this in 2000, the early 2000s, it was really focused on medicine, medical schools, you know, that type of thing. As bioscience has really evolved into implantable and wearable technologies, we thought it was better to re-brand as a broader biosciences, as opposed to just biomedicine.” 

What are the parameters for this new physical “core area?”

Mackay described the rough outline of the core as reaching from Van Buren to Polk and from 4th St. to 7th St., but noted that the area isn’t solid.

“We have University of Arizona as ASU and NAU that are gathering around the core itself. It is really having more soft edges these days.”