Ohio health-care startups lead Midwest in venture capital investments

Ohio leads the region in venture capital investments for health-care bioscience companies, pulling in nearly $245 million in the first half of 2007.

A report from BioEnterprise, a Cleveland-based bioscience incubator, said the Midwest took in $742 million in venture capital investments toward 64 health-care companies in the first half of 2007. More than a third of the health-care related biotech firms in the Midwest that profited from venture capital investment are in Ohio, which led all states in the first half of 2007 with $244.3 million in investments.

The Ohio Business Development Coalition estimates Ohio has secured more than $1 billion in total funding so far this year, including grants and other development aid, for 775 bioscience entities.

Coalition executives said in a release that Ohio ranks above other Midwest states for bioscience investment mainly for its strong health-care, agriculture and industrial bioscience sectors. The sectors generated more than $5.2 billion in direct economic impact and employed more than 37,000 workers in 2005, the latest year for which statistics are available.

Beyond Ohio, the entire Midwest region has been the site of strong growth in health-care bioscience capital investments. The region more than doubled investments for that bioscience sector compared with the first half of 2006, when 49 health-care bioscience startups took in $287 million in venture capital investments.

The Ohio Business Development Coalition is a nonprofit organization that provides marketing and implementation support for the state's economic development efforts. The coalition took in $2.38 million in its fiscal 2005 from government agency fees and contracts.