By Lisa Birkman, Williamson County Conservative Examiner

Mayor Alan McGraw of Round Rock said Wednesday at the quarterly luncheon meeting of Momentum, an economic development partnership committee, that Round Rock could possibly be the site where a cure for cancer is found.

The city and the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce have been working with Dr. Larry Tamarkin of Cytimmune Sciences, Inc. to have the company possibly locate in the Round Rock area. Cytimmune is literally working on a cure for cancer. According the company website, www.cytimmune.com/, “Cytimmune Sciences is a clinical stage nanomedicine company with a core focus on the discovery, development and commercialization of multifunctional, tumor-targeted therapies. Based on an R&D strategy which harnesses the unique properties of gold nanoparticles, cytotoxic agents, and biology of tumors, the Company is developing a pipeline of proprietary drug candidates binding potent anti-cancer agents -- whose toxicity profiles currently prevent or severely limit clinical use -- to its patented colloidal gold tumor-targeting nanotechnology.The goal is to mitigate the risks of drug development and build from these core technologies families of first-in-class therapeutics with accelerated clinical timelines, new commercialization value, and – ultimately – greater patient benefits.” A video explanation of their technology is available on the company website.

I spoke to Dr. Tamarkin at the luncheon and he said that the recent funding by the state legislature of cancer research bonds, sometimes referred to as the Lance Armstrong bonds since Mr. Armstrong lobbied for their passage, had made Texas a viable location for their company. Cytimmune is currently housed in Maryland. Having the Texas A & M Health Sciences Center in our community is also a big plus.

The keynote speaker at the event was Andrew Clutz, director for Oxford Intelligence/North America, a research and consulting firm that assists economic development agencies and others. He spoke about issues related to the recruitment of biotechnology firms, such as Cytimmune. As an overview, Mr. Clutz explained that healthcare is a $5 billion per year global industry with the USA having a 43% share of the business. Pharmaceutical companies account for the largest share, with medical technology next and then biotechnology. Several trends are being seen in the industry, such as pharmaceutical companies merging with medical and bio technical ones. Also, more and more of the business, including investments, employment, research and such, is moving to China and India. An advantage these countries have is “being able to throw bodies” at a project “to get things done quickly.” Also, most of the medical or biotechnology companies are clustered in areas with top notch universities, giving them access to the finest minds in medicine. Some of the current top locations are the San Diego and Boston areas as well as Copenhagen, Sweden. Charley Ayres, Vice-President of Business Retention and Development for the Round Rock Chamber, commented that for all of us Texans, this had nothing to do with Copenhagen tobacco! Mr. Clutz concluded by giving advice to Momentum members in our area in how to better attract and retain companies. He said that too many other cities “over promise and under deliver.” He believes that financial incentives are a part of the package, but areas can also compete on other criteria, such as availability of skilled labor, accessibility to reliable transportation and more. He urged us to not use a broadbrush and try to attract everyone, but to develop a niche. Dr. Tamarkin told me he agreed with Mr. Lutz’s statements.

Also in attendance at the luncheon were several elected officials including State Rep. Dan Gattis (R-Georgetown), State Rep. Diana Maldonado (D-Round Rock), Commissioner Ron Morrison, and Round Rock City Councilmembers John Moman and Kris Whitfield.

For more info:  Go to Cytimmune Sciences site, www.cytimmune.com/ and Oxford Intelligence's site, www.oxint.com/. For more information on the Momentum Committee, go to their site, www.roundrockchamber.org/Momentum.51.0.html.