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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 65 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine I N N OVAT I O N / R & D "It's not a difficult draw," says LuAnn Ballesteros, vice president of external and government affairs for JAX. "We're successful at bringing really great scientists to Maine." She cites the state's quality of life, natural beauty and low crime rate. In meetings at JAX and with scientists from other Maine research institutions, she says, "I'm often the only Maine native in the room." But just as important, she says, is the collegiality of those in the room. "ere's a natural inclination to collaborate here," she says. "You don't have to wend your way through layers of people; the collaborations are easier to navi- gate. ere is less sense of being proprietary." A scientific network James Coffman, a principal investigator at MDI, credits some of the scientific collaboration in the state to a group of research and educational institutions, the Maine IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence. e Maine INBRE is one of two dozen such federally funded networks, intended to foster research work and scientific training in states that typically don't host much of it. e Maine INBRE is led by MDI and includes JAX as well as 11 colleges and universities. "e idea is that in some small, isolated places, you don't have the critical mass," Coffman says. "We're connecting all those places … We're not a huge bureaucracy. We're light on our feet." e Maine INBRE recently received an $18 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support its ongoing work. And the network seems to be pay- ing the investment forward. In addition to providing $86 million in direct federal funding to the state, the INBRE has attracted $80 million in additional federal grants, provided research training for 2,250 Maine stu- dents and created more than 100 new jobs. e network's members too are having an impact. In Maine, JAX alone employs 1,400 people; its workforce lives in 14 of Maine's 16 counties, 67 zip codes in all. e INBRE members are also having effects in Maine and beyond. For example, in 2013 former MDI President Kevin Strange and MDI scientist Voot P. Yin co-founded Novo Biosciences, a Bar Harbor firm developing a drug that may someday help regenerate damaged heart tissue. e company recently received a European pat- ent for its work, and in April the prestigious journal Scientific American published an article on the drug candidate's development. And at JAX, research mice specially cultivated in the lab's new 135,000-square-foot vivarium are helping advance science internationally. In fact, Jackson Lab mice have been distributed to more than 25,000 researchers in more than 1,900 institu- tions in 75 countries. "Anytime there's significant science using a mouse model, more often than not it's a JAX mouse," says Ballesteros. New generations In Maine, the relationships between science and business have always been close. You might even say, familial. In 2010, IDEXX founder David Shaw and his son, Benjamin Shaw, launched Vets First Choice, a phar- macy and technology provider for veterinary practices. en, in February, Vets First Choice merged with the animal supplies business of Henry Schein Inc. (Nasdaq: HSIC) to form Covetrus Inc. (Nasdaq: CVET). e Portland company's estimated 2018 revenue of $4 billion is nearly twice that of IDEXX, and makes Covetrus Maine's largest publicly traded company in terms of annual sales. Such explosive growth is possible partly because of the company's focus on animal health, according to Brigham, at ImmuCell. Regulation, financing and other potential hurdles present a "much lower barrier to entry" in bioscience products for animals than for humans, Brigham believes. "It's hard to start small in human health. ere's a much greater chance of being the next Covetrus than the next Amgen," he says, referring to the California- based multinational company. Another IDEXX offspring offers a more unusual pet product line: chews and oils that treat arthritis with compounds derived from hemp, a form of can- nabis. ElleVet Sciences, of Portland, was launched in 2017 by Michael J. Williams and Christian Kjaer, both formerly senior executives at IDEXX. It's too early to tell if the treatment will catch on, even in a marijuana-friendly Maine. But researchers remain optimistic about the potential of the state's home-grown science. "You never know," MDI's Coffman says, "where the next big breakthrough is coming from." W i l l i a m H a l l , M a i n e b i z d i g i t a l e d i t o r , c a n b e r e a c h e d a t w h a l l @ m a i n e b i z . b i z You never know where the next big breakthrough is coming from. — James Coffman MDI Biological Lab Ben Shaw Kevin Strange, left, and Voot P. Yin David Shaw F I L E P H O T O S / T I M G R E E N WAY F I L E P H O T O / L E S L I E BOW M A N

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