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EBTC becomes Omeris

Edison BioTechnology Center, one of the original Edison Centers created in the mid-1980s by the State of Ohio to assure the competitiveness and growth of Ohio's economy, has changed its name and updated its mission. The organization's new direction, announced today at the annual BioOhio conference by EBTC (now Omeris) President Anthony Dennis, Ph.D., culminates a nearly yearlong review of EBTC's structure and activities.

The mission of Omeris: "Accelerating bioscience discovery, innovation, and commercialization of global value, driving economic growth, and improving quality of life in Ohio."

"Our mission reflects our focus on networking the distributed and outstanding Bioscience assets of Ohio to create not just the best of class in Ohio but the best of class globally," noted Omeris President Anthony Dennis, Ph.D. "We believe that by focusing our efforts on being globally competitive we will import more dollars, jobs and companies to the state and the people of Ohio will better recognize that the Biosciences are not just a pillar industry for Ohio but also directly enhance the quality of life of Ohioans.

"Ohio's Bioscience industry can flourish if we focus on building on the strengths of Ohio, which are numerous but distributed, rather than to try to follow models set in other regions," he continued. "Ohio's clinical assets for example, rank among the top in the nation, some of our universities are among the top nationally in conversion of reports of invention to commercial businesses and we have a very strong base of major companies with Bioscience as the core of their growth, to name a few of Ohio's assets. Omeris was restructured to help focus our distributed resources into powerful teams of industry, academia and government as a way to more rapidly build our entrepreneurial Bioscience industry and to bring a renewed sense of entrepreneurism to our state."

Organizationally, the formation of Omeris concludes a process that began organically nearly a decade ago, when Edison BioTechnology Center began establishing regional offices in the major research communities around the state. Over time, those regional entities have diversified naturally to tailor their tactics in pursuit of the best formulas for growing the state’s bioscience industry in their own regions. The reorganization establishes Omeris as the statewide umbrella organization that will pursue large-scale initiatives that build bridges between the regions' separate assets as a way to leverage federal and private investment dollars from out-of-state.

Omeris will also work to boost the profile of Ohio's bioscience industry sector, both within the state and externally and will act as the focal point for the statewide industry through networking events like the annual BioOhio meeting and a comprehensive web site with database information spanning the state. Omeris will retain its identification as an Edison Center of Ohio because of the strong and positive image the Edison program enjoys outside the state.

"The new relationship enables our regional affiliates--BioEnterprise in Cleveland, Edison Biotechnology Institute in Athens, BIO/START in Cincinnati, and the Central Ohio regional office --to tailor their mix of activities, staff and programs to most effectively accelerate Bioscience commercialization in their specific regions. In fact, the successes of Omeris at recruiting of new companies, leveraging large federal projects, etc. will all be implemented by the regional affiliates," said Dennis.

"Each regional affiliate shares the basic economic development imperatives at the core of EBTC's mission, which are to nurture and commercialize biosciences technologies through the formation of new companies, and the attraction of companies from out of state. Our new organizational structure is designed to increase efficiency as well as significantly building local energy and involvement. I am highly confident that, given the leadership and plans that are in place, the regional entities will continue to have a major impact in responding to the particular opportunities in their own markets over the long term."

Since its inception in 1986, Edison Biotechnology Center has been headquartered in Cleveland, with regional offices added over the years in Cincinnati, Columbus, and most recently, Athens. As a part of the reorganization process, the statewide EBTC office has been relocated to Columbus.

About the Ohio Edison Program

Companies of all sizes have benefited from the many programs offered by the Edison Technology Centers since the Ohio Department of Development's Thomas Edison Program was launched in 1984. Surveys have shown the Edison Centers contributing to significant increases in sales, profits, and market share of many companies.

As the leading component of the Edison Program, the Centers have helped link industry with academia and government in partnerships to enhance industrial competitiveness through technology development. In doing so, the Centers have carried out thousands of projects to accelerate technology utilization by participating companies.

Each of the Centers offers its own special capabilities in specific technologies. As companies increasingly are seeking answers to multi-disciplinary needs, the Centers have expanded their outreach through collaborative relationships with fellow Centers. As a result, participating companies now have an even broader resource network to tap into in improving their competitive positions.