Bioscience Infrastructure was key to landing Medco

Artilce by John Ketzenberger of the Indianapolis Star

Corporate executives work hard to say little, especially at big public announcements.

That's why local economic development officials beamed when Medco President Kenneth Klepper contrasted Indianapolis and Louisville, the finalist cities for a $150 million "flagship" distribution center.

"It's the work force, of course, but it's the city," Klepper said of why Medco chose Indianapolis.

"We're going to be bringing a lot of people into the city, through our facility. This is a place we know they're going to be very welcome and eager to come to."

This wasn't always the case for the burgeoning bioscience industry. Just ask John Mills, who started BioStorage Technologies in 2002.

"I would say, there was limited interest in what we wanted to do," Mills said. His company of 40 employees stores and ships biological samples for about 60 client companies. He has plenty of interest now, including $8.3 million in venture capital.

Medco, BioStorage and many other life-sciences companies aren't here by accident. They're investing here because the 50 CEOs who populate the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership realize it makes sense to play off the region's strengths.

"An event like this connects the dots for many people," said David Johnson, president of BioCrossroads, the first of CICP's efforts.

The area's work force, which Johnson said "has been trained, grown up and works in a (Food and Drug Administration)- compliant world," is an obvious dot.

Getting that work force to a position that passed muster with Medco was less apparent. Medco diced data so fine that the company knows where clusters of pharmacists live in the area.
Indiana has a deeper pool of pharmacists than most places because it has two of the nation's 100 pharmacy schools.

Medco was impressed to learn Lilly Endowment pumped $50 million into those schools last year, ensuring a pipeline of potential employees.

Remember, it was a pharmacist who created Eli Lilly and Co., the engine for much of the area's life-sciences assets, including medical devices and a large services industry.

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