Innovation Zone touts new jobs in emerging companies
Maria Kleinz works to filter a dye at her job at MTTI. She was an intern with the company when she was a student at WCU and was offered a full time job after she graduated. Staff photo by Amy Dragoo
WEST GOSHEN — Maria Kleinz, a recent West Chester University graduate with a chemistry degree, had a job created just for her.
A former intern with Molecular Targeting Technologies Inc. in Lincoln Independence Park, she’s now a full-time research assistant there. Molecular Targeting, or MTTI, as it’s known, is an entrepreneurial company that uses small molecules to identify and depict cancer and cardiovascular disease in the human body.
MTTI used state funds, which it got from Pennsylvania’s Keystone Innovation Zone program, or KIZ, to find Maria and train her, explained Chris Pak, the company’s 59-year-old co-founder and chief executive.
“We use the KIZ program to identify talented people and train them,” said Pak, a native of China and a resident of the United States for more than 40 years.
“Today, it’s difficult to get jobs in chemistry with only a bachelor’s degree.”
Once, Kleinz was one of a handful of interns MTTI hires every year. Others came from the University of Delaware and Colgate University.
Especially during current circumstances, as the local and national economies struggle to recover from The Great Recession, creation of any new jobs is noteworthy indeed.
MTTI employs 10 people, of whom five, including Pak, are Ph.Ds.
The state’s Department of Community and Economic Development started the KIZ program in May 2004, and has since plunked down $14 million to develop and sustain it.
It’s meant to help start-up and emerging companies get their feet off the ground, often providing benefits at no cost, said Mary Fuchs, project consultant with the Chester County Economic Development Council, one of several KIZ partners.
Chester County’s KIZ is one of 29 in the state. Its 19 fledgling companies, of which MTTI is one, may avail themselves of any and all KIZ programs. Among other benefits, KIZ offers access to lenders, venture capital networks and foundations, reimbursement for intern training and tax credits, which can range as high as $100,000 per year for a single company.
MTTI will eventually use the credit to defray its own tax liability, chief executive Pak said.
To be eligible for KIZ help, companies must be in the bio/life sciences, information technology or energy fields, in existence eight years or fewer and located within specific KIZ areas.
Chester County is unique in that its KIZ companies are spread out geographically, Fuchs noted. “A lot of other zones are clustered around a research institution. In Chester County, it’s the existing companies that have spun out new businesses close to them.”
MTTI is a perfect example.
Pak, who worked in research and development for Centocor during the 1980s and 1990s — then an independent biopharmaceutical concern and now part of the Johnson & Johnson conglomerate — licensed small molecule technology from Centocor when Hubert J.P. Schoemaker, its co-founder, was still chief executive. (Schoemaker, a pharmaceutical pioneer who went on to found Neuronyx once J&J bought Centocor, died in 2006 after a long battle with cancer.)
The county has seven KIZ areas, located in numerous office parks in the Route 100/Turnpike, East Exton, West Exton, Goshen, Downingtown, Great Valley and Chesterbrook areas.
The Chester County Economic Development Council, which manages Chester County’s KIZ program, recently announced that 15 of the 19 KIZ companies increased revenues by a collective $7 million in second-half 2009, created a total of 30 new jobs and retained 116 more.
“These are all niche businesses, businesses that have defined their markets and are growing and moving forward,” Fuchs said.
The development council has a declining state grant to run the program. It received $225,000 in 2008, $187,500 in 2009 and $125,000 this year to do so.
“The intention is that, as these companies start to operate better on their own, they become more self-sustaining,” she added.
Among Chester County’s 19 KIZ companies are ByTheZip.com, Frontage Laboratories, Isolagen Inc., Level One, Melior, Neuronetics, Othera, Progenra, Promedior Inc., Reaction Biology, Solstice Neurosciences, Tetralogic Pharmaceuticals, Virtual Chester County and Y-Prime.
Also partnering with the Chester County Economic Development Council are the Ben Franklin Technology Partners/Southeastern Pennsylvania, CresaPartners, Drexel University, Fox Rothschild, Kutztown University, Liberty Property Trust, MVM Associates, PECO, Penn State University/Great Valley, Pennsylvania BIO and West Chester University.
To contact correspondent Sarah E. Moran, send an e-mail to semoran219@msn.com.
Chester County Keystone Innovation Zone companies report more than 7 million revenue increase in last six months – 30 new jobs created and 116 jobs retained
Chester County Keystone Innovation Zone companies report more than $7 million revenue increase in last six months. ~ 30 new jobs created and 116 jobs retained
EXTON _ Fifteen of the Chester County Keystone Innovation Zone companies collectively reported more than $7 million in increased revenue for the second half of 2009. The companies also report 30 new jobs created and 116 retained.
The Chester County KIZ companies are start-up and accelerator companies that are located within the designated zone, have been in operation eight years or less and are in the bio, life sciences and technology industries. KIZ is a Department of Community and Economic Development initiative focused on the building of knowledge-based economies and the cultivation of entrepreneurship in Pennsylvania. These activities are accomplished through the gathering and aligning of resources educational institutions, private business, business support organizations, commercial lending institutions, venture capital networks and foundations.
Eligible KIZ companies have the opportunity to access a number of benefits that may be available to them at, typically, no cost. Among the benefits the companies may qualify for are KIZ specific tax credits, intern reimbursement, training reimbursement and access to translational research and grant funds.
Key partners in the Chester County KIZ include: Chester County Economic Development Council, Ben Franklin Technology Partners-Southeastern Pennsylvania, CresaPartners, Drexel University, PECO, an Exelon Corporation, Fox Rothchild LLP, Kutztown University, Liberty Property Trust, MVM Associates, Penn State University Great Valley, Pennsylvania BIO, and West Chester University.
The Chester County Economic Development Council is a private, non-profit economic development organization that has been nurturing economic growth in Chester County and the surrounding region for 50 years. The Council’s portfolio of business growth services includes: low-interest financing, small business lending, workforce training, retention and expansion, customized international business assistance, land and building site selection, brownfields consultation and remediation, urban redevelopment, and agricultural economic development. The Council also offers state-of-the art conference and training facilities at its facility in Eagleview. For more information, see www.cceconomicdevelopment.com.