Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

BioEnterprise Inc., the bioscienceventure developer in Northeast Ohio, has formalized a partnership with Team NEO to woo new medical imaging, neurostimulation, cardiovascular device and orthopedic companies to the region.Both nonprofits work in Northeast Ohio andsometimes theybump against each otheror duplicateefforts,said Annette Ballou,director of strategic marketing and communications for BioEnterprise. So the two organizationsdeveloped a strategicplan [...]

Tim Moran still remembers hearing his prematurely born daughter scream when an adult-sized cannula was inserted in her mouth and taped to her face to deliver oxygen. Several years later, Moran has started PediaWorks, a not-for-profit organization that will work with medical professionals to develop pediatric medical devices, spinning off for-profit companies to commercialize those devices.

Midwest health care start-ups attracted $780 million in investments in 2009, according to the BioEnterprise Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report. While the number of companies winning investments last year — 156 — was about the same as in 2008, the dollar volume of the investments dropped 26 percent.

The number of Midwest health care startups receiving investments could set a record this year. However, the startups reported winning far fewer dollars in the first nine months of the year than in either 2008 or 2007.

Ohio kept its No. 4 ranking for the strength of its biotechnology industry in Business Facilities magazine’s annual list, partly because of continued investments by Ohio Third Frontier, according to BioOhio, the state’s bioscience development organization.

The $5 million Medical Growth Fund gathers some of the region’s well-known health-care entreprenuers who want to make seed-level investments in startup companies that are close to profitability. It will focus on medical device, health IT, and health-care services businesses and provide an initial investment of up to $500,000.

Investments in Midwest health care start-ups fell 9 percent to $402 million in the first half of the year from a year ago, according to the latest BioEnterprise Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report. Meanwhile, life sciences investments nationwide represented the largest percentage of total venture capital invested since the MoneyTree Report started.

You’d think a worldwide economic crisis would cause companies to shut their doors to new licensing deals aimed at taking technologies market. Not at the technology transfer office at Case Western Reserve University. That office set a record for new licensing revenues during the fiscal year ended June 30 — $16.3 million.

Altogether, there are easily $50 million in health-related federal earmarks from Ohio legislators that could fund projects from the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University to a Youngstown company whose device is ideal for victims of battlefield trauma. Votes in Senate and House committees are expected this month to determine whether the institutions would get some, all or any of their requests.

Manufacturers looking to branch out into the biomedical industry will be able to get some tips from people whose businesses already participate in that market. Ohio is second in the Midwest for companies registered with the Food and Drug Administration for medical manufacturing.