KANSAS ATTRACTS BALANCE BETWEEN CUTTING-EDGE LIFE SCIENCES AND TRADITIONAL MANUFACTURING

ONCLMMUNE, A EUROPE- BASED LIFE SCIENCES COMPANY, will locate its North American headquarters and commercial lab in Lenexa, KS. The company will develop and commercialize technology that has detected breast cancer up to four years earlier than a mammogram in initial evaluations. Onclmmune will create 120 new jobs within the next four years, in addition to 20 new positions at the University of Kansas, in nearby Lawrence, and will invest $30 million into area lab operations.

Onclmmune will collaborate with the KU School of Pharmacy, KU Higuchi Biosciences Center and the KU Medical Center to transfer its breast cancer technology to other forms of cancer such as lung, prostate and colon. Onclmmune will designate Lenexa as its North American headquarters and will share commercial laboratory space with IBT, a reference laboratory already located in Lenexa.

The company was founded in 2003 to commercialize technology developed in the laboratories of John Robertson, a professor of surgery at Nottingham University in England. "Professor Robertson always knew that the product would have to come to the United States to be commercialized," said Tony Barnes, CEO of Onclmmune. "The medical community here is the most aggressive at adapting new technology."

"KU's commitment to developing a comprehensive cancer center, the cooperation of IBT reference laboratories, Missouri's medical imaging programs and the focus of the biosciences community here put Kansas City at the top of our list," Roberston said.