Trouble in life-sciences paradise

Think of life sciences centers in Indiana, and Bloomington is often mentioned in the same breath as Indianapolis, West Lafayette
and Warsaw.

But Bloomington is struggling to keep its edge, suggests a package of stories that ran over the weekend in The Herald-Times.
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Bloomington has too few workers qualified to work at places like Cook Group, Boston Scientific and Baxter Healthcare, the
newspaper reported. And Bill Cook, a pioneering entrepreneur in the sector, chided the city for a lack of serious innovation.

“We have been talking ‘high-tech’ in this community for 30 years,” Cook is quoted as saying. “Not
much has come of it. There is a lot of talk. I am not sure there are a whole lot of ideas.”

This is strong language from a billionaire whose sprawling company virtually single-handedly launched the industry in Bloomington.

Four years ago, Cook Group planned to make a new product line in Bloomington but had to send the work elsewhere because it
couldn’t find enough workers. If the problem wasn’t a criminal record, it was inadequate education or poor hand-eye
coordination.

Today, life sciences accounts for 6.8 percent of local jobs in the Bloomington area. But hardly any innovations are coming
out of Bloomington, Cook chided; nearly all of interest to Cook Group are discovered in West Lafayette, Indianapolis or elsewhere.

Life sciences is supposed to be one of the bright spots in Bloomington to replace jobs like those lost at Thomson Consumer
Electronics’ television assembly plant and General Electric’s refrigerator plant. Also keep in mind that Bloomington
is supposed to be one of those places state economic development experts don’t need to worry about. In addition to the
stability of employment at Indiana University, life sciences is supposed to bulk up advanced manufacturing employment and,
at least to some extent, create highly paid research positions.

How do you feel about life sciences in Bloomington? Across the state?