An informative account of gubernatorial job creation ideas published this month by the Pew Charitable Trusts leads off with a chief concern in many jurisdictions: Getting enough healthcare workers. One governor, for instance, is willing to help nursing students pay off their college loans.
Bloomberg recently published this insightful piece on why medical device makers are looking to the East.
Building healthy communities that meet the shifting needs and preferences of different generations, accommodate new economic drivers, and which are more resilient to environmental changes will be the key focus of the Urban Land Institute’s 2014 Spring Meeting, set for April 9-11, 2014 in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the city’s Convention Centre.
Swansea University has begun construction of a new £8-million Data Science Building at its Singleton Park Campus, as part of its campus development plans. The 2,900-sq.-m. (31,216-sq.-ft.) Data Science @ ILS (see rendering), which will be an addition to the College of Medicine’s Institute of Life Science 1 and 2 buildings, is scheduled to open in summer 2015 and will house the £5-million Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, the £4.3-million Centre for the Improvement of Population Health through e-Records Research (CIPHER); and the new £8 million Administrative Data Research Centre Wales (ADRC Wales).
In November in Corporant, Haiti, in the country’s Central Plateau, Partners In Health (PIH), Abbott and its foundation, the Abbott Fund, opened a new 18,000-sq.-ft. (1,672-sq.-m.) nutrition production facility (pictured) for "Nourimanba," a life-saving treatment for severe malnutrition in children.
"Producing Nourimanba at the new facility will help PIH and Zanmi Lasante to continue providing free, high-quality treatment for children at our clinics across the region," said Ophelia Dahl, PIH co-founder and executive director. (Zanmi Lasante is Haitian Creole for Partners in Health.) "The impact of this partnership goes well beyond a building. As an employer and a customer for local farmers, this facility aims to spark a cluster of economic activity that is desperately needed in the region."
The facility was built primarily by Haitian workers, with technical support from more than 50 Abbott engineers, scientists and other experts. Designed to meet international standards for food products, it includes modern laboratories and testing technology, with extensive quality and safety procedures. At the same time, the facility was built to be appropriate for Haiti, with rugged equipment that requires little maintenance.
The main ingredient in Nourimanba is locally sourced peanuts grown by Haitian farmers. Through the partnership, a pilot program is providing support for approximately 300 farmers to improve the quality and quantity of the peanut supply needed for the facility, while increasing farmer incomes and the overall competitiveness of the local peanut agricultural sector.
Photo courtesy of Abbott
Where on the life sciences spectrum are investors looking to place their bets? Life Science Nation has some notions.
In order to serve life sciences among other sectors, DHL Global Forwarding earlier this month began new temperature-controlled air freight service between Brussels, Belgium, and DHL’s hub (pictured) in Cincinnati, Ohio, six times a week. Real-time tracking and temperature measurement data is available on each flight and can be accessed via a dedicated web portal.
“With this service we are further enhancing our dedication to the life sciences industry and the changing world of regulations within the industry sector,” said Ingo Alexander Rahn, executive vice president and global head of air freight, DHL Global Forwarding. “This is the first of many routes with a dedicated airfreight service for temperature-controlled products. More of them are planned.”
Photo courtesy of DHL
On Jan. 31 the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced a new lease agreement for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md., that saves taxpayers approximately $29 million over the 15-year term of the lease. The new lease deal will keep the CDC at its Hyattsville location. The building will be renovated to accommodate additional personnel, allowing the CDC to reduce its need for other leases and shrink its footprint by more than 70,000 sq. ft. (sq. m.). The GSA has been implementing lease reform measure for some time, and earlier this year announced major investments in public infrastructure as well as $70 million to further its efforts to consolidate agencies within existing federally owned space.
Wilmington, N.C.-based clinical research organization Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC and the Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin this month announced a new collaboration between the company and the hospital’s clinical trials management unit (CTMU) to increase the volume of clinical trials conducted in Germany, improve access to commercial clinical research for patients, accelerate the development of new medicines and enhance health care treatment opportunities for German citizens.
The collaboration builds upon the long-standing relationship between PPD and the Charité, one of the largest and most well-respected university hospitals in Europe. With 13,200 employees, the hospital maintains more than 100 clinics and institutes within 17 CharitéCenters at its four campuses.
“Germany’s abundance of intellectual and technical resources, coupled with the ongoing advances that have streamlined the clinical research process, make the country extremely attractive for clinical research,” said Roger Newbery, PPD’s vice president of clinical management for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
We recently ran across this 2012 report from the European Commission on the internationalization of business investments in R&D.
RSS FEED
