UA News

The Arizona Cancer Center benefits Arizona and the world through its research, production of jobs and spinoff companies.

The economic reach of the University of Arizona's Arizona Cancer Center extends throughout Tucson, across the nation and around the world.

With a sustained annual $78 million cancer research budget, the projected economic impact of the Arizona Cancer Center – in addition to the 450 direct jobs created by the Center – includes more than 5,700 jobs, paying more than $264 million in wages, $885 million in gross sales, $7.8 million in city and county revenues and $11.7 million in state revenues.

"Increasingly National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers are required to translate research findings from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and ultimately to society," said David S. Alberts, Arizona Cancer Center director.

"The Arizona Cancer Center has been especially successful in developing spin-off companies to bring novel, anti-cancer drugs, chemoprevention agents and diagnostic devices to the marketplace," Alberts said.

The Cancer Center also prides itself in the spin-off companies that have evolved from the decades of research that has been conducted toward the Center's goals of preventing and curing cancer.

Nine of the 14 companies that the Center has spawned in biotechnology devices and technologies, pharmaceutical treatment and pharmaceutical prevention have a presence in Tucson and Pima County. It supports a range in industry, from a single empoyee in a privately held company to nearly 800 workers in an international corporation.

According to a study released in early 2008 by the Economic and Business Research Center of the UA Eller College of Management, the 14 spinoff firms represented about 1,290 jobs, with more than 1,000 of the positions held in Pima County. Other firms are located in New Jersey, Utah, California and Australia.

A shining star in Southern Arizona is Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.

A member of the Swiss-based Roche Group since 2008, it was founded more than 20 years ago by Thomas Grogan, UA professor of pathology and longtime Arizona Cancer Center member.

With a workforce of nearly 800 – which is expected to grow to 1,000 by the end of 2009 – Ventana is one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of medical diagnostic instrument and reagent systems providing leading-edge automation technology for use in slide-based diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases.

Ventana was singled out by both Business Week as a "hot growth" company and by Fortune as "fastest growing" in 2006.

Moving later this year into an expanded new Combinational Technology Center near Ventana Medical Systems in Oro Valley is Sanofi-Aventis, founded as Selectide in 1991 to produce novel peptides for cancer treatment. The company expects its 67-member workforce to grow by 40 positions.

Niadyne Development, Inc., focuses its development on products that treat and prevent sun damage to skin, optimization of scalp and hair follicle function and optimization of cholesterol and other blood lipids. Niadyne Development was named the 2007 Arizona Biotech Company of the Year by the Arizona Bioindustry Association.

Cancer Prevention Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2008 by Arizona Cancer Center and University of California Irvine researchers to develop therapies to prevent cancer in people with elevated risks for these diseases, with an initial focus on colorectal cancer.