[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Chicago seems to be finding its footing in biotech:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/john-...-biotech-bench

Nice. Some "highlights" from the article:

"I've started getting some calls from VCs not located here who have started asking, 'What companies should we be looking at?' I didn't get those calls before," says John Conrad, who leads industry trade group Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Association, or iBio.

A more tangible sign of the impact: Collectively, Iterum, Xeris and Aptinyx are worth $1.6 billion, based on their market capitalizations.

Another: Illinois employment in the biopharma industry grew 9 percent between 2014 and 2016, compared to 2 percent nationally, Conrad says. The Illinois growth rate between 2012 and 2014 was 3.8 percent. Illinois has the nation's fifth-largest concentration of life sciences workers. He credits hiring at North Chicago-based AbbVie for some of the rise but says it's more due to startups.

Paul Edick, 63, who was retired when investors in an Austin, Texas-based maker of a glucagon rescue pen for diabetics asked him to lead the company a year ago and moved it to Chicago, where it has added 40 jobs and is looking to hire another 40 people.