Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which manages the intellectual property of UW-Madison researchers, as organizations he’d like to see get more involved, potentially through a system of rewards or penalties.
“[Let’s] get those three working together and hold them accountable for economic development,” says Conroy. “We can provide a financial incentive for these world-class institutions to play a greater role.”
Wisconsin should look to Ireland, Conroy says, where pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other healthcare sectors have boomed over the past quarter-century. He says this happened in part because the government lowered the corporate tax rate and invested in local companies.
BioFoward CEO Lisa Johnson, who was not part of the panel but spoke earlier in the day, says she’s optimistic “foundational companies” like Waukesha-based GE Healthcare and Fitchburg-based Promega can turn the Milwaukee and Madison areas, respectively, into life science hubs. She says the idea, similar to what some observers say Epic Systems has done for healthtech in Madison, is this: People come to work at a big employer and some end up leaving the company—but not the area or industry—to strike out on their own or join an existing startup.
Both Conroy and Randy Spaulding, who is CEO of West Bend-based Spaulding Clinical Research and moderated the panel, are former GE Healthcare employees, Johnson says.
“There’s no exodus,” says Johnson. “You don’t have to go to one of the coasts. Young people who have other choices decide to stay here because they can.”
