Rockville, Maryland - October 2017—BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) was founded in 2012 to accelerate technology transfer and commercialization opportunities in Montgomery County, Maryland. Since that time, BHI has expanded its scope to include similar activity in the BioHealth Capital Region (Maryland, DC, and Virginia). This region—and Montgomer County in particular— is unique in terms of the government, academic and industry assets comprising its biohealth industry sector. Montgomery Coun- ty is home to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and local campuses of Johns Hopkins University and the University System of Maryland. The County has one of the largest clusters of biohealth companies in the United States.
Caption: Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett (center) flanked by Montgomery County Assistance Chief Administrative Officer Lily Qi, BHI President and CEO Rich Bendis, KIC Director General Dr. Myun Han, BHI Managing Director, Judy Costello and six entrepreneurs participating in KIC-BHI partnership.
BHI’s currently manages several different facilities providing space for early stage companies including traditional office, wet lab, and co-working space. All of the companies affiliated with these locations receive extra support from BHI including one-on-one advisory meetings, promotion, referrals to business resources, potential collaborators and clients. BHI offers funding application assistance to qualified companies and also provides an opportunity for company management to meet with BHI entrepreneurs- in -residence for additional perspective on their business opportunities.
BHI’s International Innovation Center was created to provide international companies a solid starting point to create or locate their U.S.-based subsidiaries. The companies in this program receive the support described above plus introductions to resources and information required to establish a U.S. presence and to pursue local funding and market opportunities.
Given BHI’s history and experience supporting the growth and commercialization activity for BioHealth Capital Region companies and the Korean Innovation Center (KIC)’s interest in providing similar support and connectivity to its biohealth entrepreneurs traveling to the United States, BHI and KIC have entered a partnership whereby BHI provides space, support, connections, and introductions/referrals to additional business resources to the KIC biohealth cohorts visiting the United States.
One potential result of this new partnership is the establishment of new U.S. subsidiaries in Montgomery County by KIC entrepreneurs resulting in increased innovation and job growth in Maryland as well as in South Korea.