Photo: Contributed Photo / Hearst Connecticut Media

Sonics Executive Vice President Lauren Soloff, left, stands with CEC Co-Chairs Joe McGee and William Tong at the Sonics headquarters in Newtown, Conn., in August 2017.

Sonics Executive Vice President Lauren Soloff, left, stands with CEC Co-Chairs Joe McGee and William Tong at the Sonics headquarters in Newtown, Conn., in August 2017.

Connecticut a major player in growing biotechnology sector

The growing biotechnology corridor in the region and improved collaboration between government and manufacturing companies are among the major focuses of the state Commission on Economic Competitiveness, said the co-chairmen of the commission during a recent visit to a Newtown manufacturer.

Life sciences is an area that can really become a major part of Connecticuts growing economy, said Joe McGee, co-chairman of the commission and also the vice president of public policy and programs at Stamford-based Business Council of Fairfield County. Precision medicine and its potential is an economic driver in the state.

McGee, along with co-chairman and state Rep. William Tong, D-147, last week toured Sonics & Materials, a Newtown-based manufacturer of ultrasonic liquid processors, plastic assembly equipment and metal welding systems. Formed in 1969, Sonics has developed a line of advanced ultrasonic liquid processors for applications in DNA sequencing and nanoparticle dispersion.

Its just unbelievable that a company, sitting in Newtown, Connecticut, has a machine that is critical for the sequencing of DNA, McGee said. It just shows you the viability of the Connecticut manufacturing sector.

McGee and Tong said Connecticut is a major player in a burgeoning biotechnology corridor that stretches from New York City into the Nutmeg State. Companies such as Sonics, which employs 75 people, and larger players such as Mount Sinai in Stamford, Boehringer Ingelheim in Ridgefield and Jackson Laboratory in Farmington make Connecticut a force in the life sciences industry, they said.

Tong said the New York City Department of Economic Development recently met with the Connecticut Health Data Collaborative and announced it is investing money to have biotechnology firms migrate into Connecticut.

They need Connecticut and we need them, Tong said. Its a big component of Connecticuts economic future.

Tong said the growing field will help the state reach its lofty expectations associated with the CT 500 program, the goal of which is to create 500,000 private-sector jobs in the state in the next 25 years.

McGee said the biotechnology corridor has a broad reach and it has only recently been targeted as a major economic driver for the state. The Commission on Economic Competitiveness, or CEC, is performing an asset analysis of the industry.

Its one of those things thats been hiding in plain sight, McGee said. There are a lot of places here of significance.

The CEC was created by the state Legislature in 2015 and is made up of lawmakers and private sector leaders with the goal of strengthening and improving the states economic competitiveness.

Lauren Soloff, executive vice president at Sonics, said McGee and Tong talked at length with employees and had a lunch outside after the tour. Soloff, a Westport resident, said the co-chairmen discussed how companies such as Sonics can partner with community colleges and vocational schools to strengthen the curriculum for advanced manufacturing programs.

Its nice to shine a bright light on some of the positive things happening in Connecticut, she said. It was an extremely positive meeting. They are both realists, but optimistic. It was one of the more upbeat visits weve ever had.

cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338

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Connecticut a major player in growing biotechnology sector - Danbury News Times