Last week, Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield led a delegation of Alabama bioscience businesses on a trade mission to Nordic Life Sciences Days (NLSDays), the largest Scandinavian partnering conference dedicated to the life sciences industry.

The Alabama team, which includes representatives from six bioscience firms, arrived in Copenhagen to attend an evening reception hosted by Alan M. Leventhal, the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark.

The group engaged in pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings, toured the region’s dynamic Medicon Valley life science cluster, attended presentations, and participated in networking opportunities.

“Alabama’s robust bioscience industry is plugged into a sweeping range of cutting-edge fields, and we’re committed to helping foster growth in this strategically important sector,” Secretary Canfield said. “This mission to NLSDays will permit these Alabama companies to make valuable new connections and explore the possibilities of collaborations in the Nordic region.”

Launched in 2013, NLSDays attracts leading decision-makers from biotech, pharma, medtech and more. Organizers say the event creates a unique place to do business by bringing innovative companies together for inspiration, partnering, and global industry growth.

Jeremy Blanks is the CEO of BioAlabama, a trade group representing bioscience enterprises across the state.

“The NLSDays mission is a critical step in marketing the life science capabilities of Alabama on a global basis,” said Blanks, CEO of BioAlabama.

Economic developer Dr. Nicole Jones Wadsworth told Alabama Today, “With an estimated annual economic impact of 7.3 billion dollars, bioscience is one of the state of Alabama’s dominant industries. As a targeted business sector, the field has attracted attention across Alabama and the world. Alabama is home to a growing list of bioscience companies that manufacture pharmaceutical products, medical devices, and life-saving treatments and technologies. Attendance at this month’s Nordic Life Science Days (NLSDays) conference helps recruit new partners and further our state’s global presence as a bioscience hub.”

Alabama bioscience companies’ missions are:

CytoViva Inc. (Auburn), a provider of state-of-the-art optical and spectral imaging instrumentation

Gulf Sterilization Inc. (Mobile), which provides medical device sterilization services using chlorine dioxide gas

iRepertoire (Huntsville), a provider of next-generation sequencing of immune receptors and T- and B-cells

MRIMath LLC (Birmingham), which provides cloud-based workspaces for image analysis and sharing using AI-aided methods

SynVivo Inc. (Huntsville), a provider of tissue and organ-on-chip models for drug development and personalized medicine applications

TriAltus Bioscience (Birmingham) which provides a simplified protein purification platform for research applications

Alabama is home to 780 bioscience companies, and the industry has an annual economic impact estimated at $7.3 billion, according to an analysis performed for BioAlabama. Nearly 18,000 Alabamians are employed in life science or biotechnology jobs, with average annual salaries in the industry topping $67,000.

Commerce’s Office of International Trade is a member of the Export Alabama Alliance, a network of agencies that help Alabama companies access foreign markets.

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