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By Scott Meacham For this third column in my series exploring the long-term impact of the COVID pandemic on the fields of clinical research, I drew on the experience and insight Dr. Stephen M. Prescott, president of Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF). The pandemic has already been a disruptor with a number of changes thatRead more

By Stephen Prescott, M.D. When Novartis announced earlier this month that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved the company’s new drug to treat sickle cell anemia, the press release didn’t mention Oklahoma. But it should have. That drug, known as Adakveo, is as Oklahoman as redbuds and scissor-tailed flycatchers. Indeed, but for workRead more

By Stephen Prescott, M.D. Copyright (2018) The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Nor will Oklahoma City’s Innovation District be. But the past month has seen some exciting progress as our community works to create a hub for entrepreneurship. First, a quick refresher: The Innovation District is loosely defined as the areaRead more

Copyright © (2018) The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Katy Evans Boren has been named president and CEO of Oklahoma City’s innovation district, the Oklahoma Health Center Foundation said Friday. The new position is designed to promote economic growth and civic involvement in the district that includes the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and nearby biotechnologyRead more

By Stephen Prescott, M.D. Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Imaging. It’s the ability to create a visual representation of something we cannot simply view with the naked eye. In biomedical research, imaging technologies focus on things that are really, really tiny. For example, to understand how the body’s circulatory system functions, cardiovascular biologistsRead more

By Stephen Prescott, M.D. Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Company In his first address to a joint session of Congress last month, President Donald Trump highlighted a young woman he’d invited to the speech. Her name was Megan Crowley. “Megan was diagnosed with Pompe disease, a rare and serious illness, when she was 15Read more

By Paula Burkes Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Company Q: Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved 22 new drugs. How does that compare to past years? A: It’s a sharp drop-off from 2016, when we saw twice as many new drugs reach the market. Over the previous five years, the FDA hadRead more

By Stephen Prescott, M.D. Copyright © 2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Happy New Year! In the world of health and business, 2016 brought its share of headlines. But many of those stories read like the ghosts of Christmases past. There was outrage over a massive price hike for an old drug (EpiPen). Health insurance costsRead more

Charity Navigator, the country’s largest charity evaluator, has again awarded the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation its highest rating. OMRF received a four-star rating, scoring 93.21 out of a possible 100, for demonstrating good financial health and a strong commitment to accountability and transparency.

In many places, the emergence of this sector of the economy happened spontaneously. Take, for example, Silicon Valley. Or the growth of biotechnology businesses in the greater Boston area. Our state’s leaders understood that this sector was too important to Oklahoma’s long-term economic health (and the health of our population) to ignore. So they took some farsighted steps to try to catalyze the development of science and technology in Oklahoma.

In October, the Brookings Institute announced Oklahoma City as one of two pilot cities that are part of a study into developing an Innovation District. It already has held informational meetings and tours to gather ideas on just what that might look like.

It’s a rare moment that the leaders and scientists of Oklahoma’s bioscience industry can come together to share the collaborative spirit that is such a part of who they are and what they are creating. The annual OKBIO Summit and BioScience Awards dinner is one of those moments.

An Emerging Tech Center: Oklahoma City Voices from the Startup Community in Innovation Magazine Copyright © 2016 | Innovation America WeGoLook.com co-founder and CEO Robin Smith: “There are startup ‘hotbeds’ and innovation hubs all around the country that have been coined as such for a variety of reasons.  But in many of these places itRead more

Two decades after Oklahoma City embraced a groundbreaking initiative that remade the city through a series of pay-as-you-go projects, another initiative is emerging with implications for economic development. In October, the Brookings Institution announced that Oklahoma City is one of two pilot cities included in a study about developing an innovation district in an area of the city heavily focused on biotechnology research.

For the sake of Oklahoma’s energy sector, let’s hope the New Year brings a bump in oil and gas prices. But even if that doesn’t happen, there are still plenty of economic silver linings to be found in the state.

The loss of the state’s EDGE Fund has meant less funding opportunities for the state’s bioscience companies such as Caisson Biotech and Selexys Pharmaceuticals.