Another Bright Spot in the Economy: Life Science

The life science cluster is thriving in Washington State, up almost 10,000 employees between 2007 and 2011 according to a study by the Washington Research Foundation. That’s about 33,000 high quality primary jobs!  the EDC continues to play a significant role in this expanding job-rich industry by directly incubating companies through Cascadia MedTech, case management, and volunteer service on the boards of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association and Biomedical Manufacturing Partnership Zone.

Cascadia MedTech−the medical technology incubator spun-out from the collaboration with the City of Federal Way−has seen significant deal-flow over the past eighteen months. The incubator has reviewed over forty businesses since opening its doors. Cascadia MedTech is currently working on expansion efforts with five companies: Vacupractor, GAPPS, the PhoneGuard, Guidewire Architects, and MA2SI.  The companies focus on a variety of healthcare related issues including chronic low-back pain, premature birth and stillbirth, hospital acquired infections, electronic medical record integration, and the reduction of airborne pathogens.

the EDC continues to support the medical device industry through our participation in the Biomedical Manufacturing Innovation Partnership Zone.  We are also part of the planning effort that will result in a new medical device incubator called Runway. Located near a high concentration of medical device companies in the Bothell area, Runway will be unique in that it will feature a much needed machine shop suited to prototype work of new medical device inventions.

June 14, 2012, is the date of the 5th annual Medical Device Summit. the EDC has played a key role over the past five years in supporting the medical device industry with this important event held on the University of Washington Bothell campus.  Registration information can be found at the link above and on the the EDC website and we encourage all our investors interested in the medical device industry to attend.