Salt Lake City— Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall formally announced Salt Lake City’s participation in the creation of BioHive, a new public-private collaboration that will expand business development in Utah’s growing healthcare innovation sector.

BioHive will serve as the brand representing Utah’s healthcare innovation community, of which Salt Lake City is the hub, supporting some of the greatest entrepreneurs and companies in the country. Leaders from these companies have joined up with local economic development and industry backers to represent more than 1,000 Utah companies in the biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, genomics, biotechnology, health tech, and digital informatics fields.

This initiative will lead the first phase of Mayor Mendenhall’s ‘Tech Lake City’ initiative with the ultimate goals of driving business growth in Salt Lake City and furthering the development of innovative technologies which will benefit public health globally.

“I’m thrilled to be taking this first step toward our ultimate goal of a thriving Tech Lake City, here in Salt Lake City,” Mayor Mendenhall said. “It’s clear right now how important the life sciences industry is for public health, but it will also play a key role in our economic recovery in the months and years ahead, and that work officially begins today.”

Together, the unique private-public alliance will strengthen national competitiveness by driving strategic investments, partnerships, and insights that will benefit companies and the workforce talent they need to thrive.

“Life science companies in Utah are innovating every single day and have been for decades,” Jared Bauer, CEO of Ioniq Sciences said. “The BioHive is focused on supporting those innovations by telling their stories, and the stories of those working on them.  Ultimately we believe doing so will create new opportunities to help make people’s lives better around the world as we grow the ecosystem locally.”

It’s all about accelerating diversity, training, and a pay-it-forward culture for startups to thrive, grow, and connect.

“There is tremendous momentum in the Utah life sciences sector and we’re looking to capitalize on that interest with the creation of BioHive to further expand the industry and create a true global player in healthcare innovation,” said Clark Cahoon, the City’s Technology and Innovation Advisor. 

Mendenhall is leading efforts to expand upon the Life Sciences Corridor – a planned City effort to build more incubator, office, and wet lab space where startups can grow and scale with ease. She adds, “Now is the time to support a local industry that creates excellent opportunities for our workforce. BioHive helps cultivate the creative energy to make that happen.”

BioHive is an organization that is open and welcome to everyone interested in this growing industry. There are multiple ways to engage. Become a member, sponsor, support upcoming events, subscribe to the newsletter, join the leadership team, and more. Reach out at www.biohive.com. 

About BioHive 

BioHive is the brand for a thriving collective of more than 1,100 companies representing the life science and digital health sectors of Utah’s economy. We include researchers, developers, and manufacturers of therapeutics, devices, and diagnostics, as well as laboratory facilities, healthcare delivery systems, digital health, health IT, and supply-chain businesses that support these industries.

As a non-profit organization led by local healthcare innovation leaders, the BioHive initiative is supported by industry, the Utah World Trade Center Utah, Salt Lake City Office of Economic Development, BioUtah, the University of Utah, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and many others who see the potential benefits of the expansion of this industry in not only economic development terms, but also in supporting the effort to respond to current and future health crises. For more information, visit www.biohive.com.

About Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development 

Formed in 2016, Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development is focused on building Salt Lake City as a vibrant, beautiful, prosperous, diverse, and authentic place – a place that is economically accessible to everyone. Known as the “Crossroads of the West,” Salt Lake City is strategically located for businesses to succeed. SLCDED works to streamline processes, provide excellent customer service, and offer an array of resources and services to recruit and retain businesses in the City, and ensure they have the tools to thrive. For more information, visit www.slc.gov/ed.