New Jersey Entrepreneur

New Jersey will be closer to its goal of creating a “global hot-spot for biosciences” thanks to partnership with the city of Daegu, South Korea to develop bioscience clusters. A special partnership signing ceremony to commemorate the strategic partnership will be held on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 10:00 am.

The ceremony will be held at the Life Sciences Atrium on the Rutgers University Busch Campus, and will include formal acknowledgements and Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) between delegates from Daegu and New Jersey bioscience business and academic leaders. The event represents the culmination of the 2009 New Jersey Life Sciences Week, which celebrates the spirit of biosciences in New Jersey.

“New Jersey is attracting more global partnerships every year because it has the world’s greatest concentration of talent that has taken bioscience innovations to market,” stated Dr. David Finegold, Chairman, Bio-1 WIRED Fund. “We are very excited about the partnership and the potential job opportunities that could be generated through this important alliance.”

The third largest city in South Korea, Daegu recently won a $5 billion competition created by the Korean central government to build a High-tech Medical Complex. Branded “Medi-City Daegu”, the complex will foster the development of cutting-edge technology and medical products, as well as serve as a medical equipment hub for the region. Special Advisor of Daegu High-Tech Medical Complex and Ambassador of Bio-1 to Korea Dr. Hahn-Jun Lee stated, “Both the “Garden State-New Jersey” and “Medi-City Daegu” regions share an excellent bioscience medical infrastructure and are looking forward to global partnerships.”

Following the strategic partnership celebration on October 28^th , representatives of the Daegu delegation will meet with key New Jersey stakeholders to explore partnerships and promote opportunities for companies and universities to partner with their High-tech Health Medical Complex. The partnerships will facilitate innovation in the healthcare industry (contract research) and educational institutions. The focus will also be on building educational programs to strength the biotechnology workforce, as well as setting up a $100 million venture fund to support bioscience companies in both regions.

“Daegu’s partnership with New Jersey will create a win-win situation for both parties by accelerating economic development through increased sales of new and improved products,” said Mayor of Daegu, Bum IL Kim.

Life Sciences Week is organized by Bio-1 whose goal is to make Central New Jersey the next “hot spot” for the global bioscience industry by helping to create a skilled bioscience workforce and increasing the number of job opportunities available in the region. Bio-1 was awarded a $5.1 million grant through the

US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration’s Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative. The grant covers a five-county area including: Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset counties. For more information about the Bio-1 initiative, please visit www.bio-one.org.