BEACHWOOD, Ohio — The business development center at the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce has attracted another company from Israel: BioForum Applied Knowledge Center.
BioForum provides continuing education courses, and applied training and consulting services for biomedical companies, said Amir Malka, the company’s chief executive. His 10-year-old company has developed 350 courses, and does about 130 events for 8,500 people per year in Israel, Malka said.
“The main service that we are going to establish also here in Beachwood, in Ohio, is continuing education for experts in the biomedical industry,” Malka said. “We locate the specific needs in regulations clinical trials, working methods and all the other skills they need to progress and develop new products.”
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BioForum’s staff of 26 in Ness Ziona, Israel, work with 250 experts worldwide — including some in the United States — who act as faculty to teach courses and training sessions and as expert consultants for pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies that need one-on-one help, he said.
Malka hopes to have a staff of about five — and many more Ohio experts — at his company’s Beachwood office within three or four years to develop BioForum’s training and consulting businesses here. Initially, that business will focus on bringing employees to Beachwood to attend courses, said Marc Coles, senior vice president of the Beachwood chamber who works in an office in Israel.
Several Ohio colleges offer associate degree programs for biomedical workers, “but nobody focuses on continuing education,” Malka said. In mid-June, BioForum agreed with BioOhio to provide continuing education services to members of the Ohio biotechnology company development organization, Malka said.
BioForum “made a strategic decision to expand operations into the U.S. market,” said Matt Schutte, corporate communications director for BioOhio. “They believe the collaboration with us will greatly contribute to that success.”
The agreement with BioOhio also meets that organization’s “training goals of strengthening the Ohio workforce, Schutte said.
So when a biomedical company wants three employees to learn how to manage information during a clinical drug trial, those employees could join other attendees at a BioForum course in Beachwood. The courses would create printing, catering and other service revenue for the city, as well as a “stick factor” for local companies to look for these services in Northeast Ohio, Coles said.
BioForum employees and experts would take their coursework to companies in Ohio or nearby states that want to train 10 or more workers, or that need specialized consulting, Malka said.
So why choose Beachwood, Ohio? BioForum already had relationships with the Beachwood chamber and BioOhio, both of which have operations in Israel, before it decided to come to America, Malka said. His company also was attracted here because no other Ohio companies appear to offer similar biomedical training services.
Most of BioForum’s competition would be on the West Coast, Malka said. For instance, the Drug Information Association conducts biomedical training courses and conferences. Eventually, BioForum would take its applied knowledge and expert centers nationwide, he said.
BioForum also offers other services, such as clinical data management, clinical trial performance and biomedical marketing and information services, Malka said.
The Beachwood Chamber of Commerce has worked to recruit Israeli businesses to its city for more than a decade. The city’s large Jewish population is one of the draws for Israeli companies.
