The path for a cure for cancer will run through Phoenix.
Sit down with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and bring up the subject of biosciences, you will experience a burst of energy and insight about the innovation in healthcare taking place across Phoenix, including the growth of businesses creating jobs, and a personal passion that, “the path for a cure for cancer will run through Phoenix.”
Kate Gallego, Mayor of Phoenix, Arizona
The City of Phoenix is home to globally recognized research institutes, brilliant researchers, physician scientists and entrepreneurs committed to advancing their technologies not only to fight for a cure for cancer but also to advance precision medicine for better treatments for both common and rare diseases.
Mayor Gallego has served the City of Phoenix since 2014, first as a Councilmember and then as Mayor, beginning in March 2019. She has made growing and strengthening the biosciences a personal and professional economic development priority.
Mayor Gallego regularly meets with innovators and industry leaders to foster the environment to catalyze precision medicine in the fight against cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Her efforts are making a difference as illustrated by the growth of bioscience businesses, jobs, wages, and a cluster of medical technologies which can benefit people worldwide.
Phoenix is an emerging life science leader
The city is now #1 in the nation for bioscience job growth in emerging life science markets. Under Mayor Gallego’s leadership, Phoenix has been recognized in national rankings for its growth in the life sciences. CBRE’s annual life sciences reports rank Phoenix in the Top 5 in the Nation among emerging life science markets and at the top of life science job growth among emerging life science markets in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Since 2019, conservatively, more than $3.5 billion has been invested in more than 5.5 million square feet of primary facilities within the City of Phoenix.
Recent highlights showcase the major health expansions taking shape in the city. Mayo Clinic will grow its North Phoenix Campus to more than 3 million square feet dedicated for world-class patient care, clinical research, innovation, and medical education. It will develop 228 acres as Discovery Oasis by Mayo. Additional expansions include Barrow Neurological Institute’s – Barrow Neuroplex, the Ivy Brain Tumor Center, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, Caris Life Sciences, Dignity Health – Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Labcorp, Sonora Quest Laboratories, and 850 PBC on the Phoenix Bioscience Core. All three of Arizona’s public universities, ASU, NAU and University of Arizona have announced investments and expansions in downtown Phoenix. Grand Canyon University and the welcoming of Creighton University’s Health Sciences Campus and Tufts University School of Medicine add to the academic and research institutions super-charging an excellence in healthcare. The trajectory of growth is testament to Phoenix’s business climate and Mayor Gallego’s championing of the life sciences.
Mayor Gallego has been committed to not only having Phoenix be recognized for its life science growth nationally, but internationally as well. Under her leadership, Phoenix has delivered a robust presence at the largest gathering of bio industry leaders in the world – the BIO International Convention – for the last four years. This year, Mayor Gallego led a delegation of more than 40 life science leaders from Phoenix to BIO in San Diego in June. She was joined by 13 Phoenix life science entrepreneurs and researchers for an event that was attended by a national and international audience in the City of Phoenix Pavilion at BIO, and she kicked off BIO’s annual Start-Up Stadium event. Mayor Gallego shared stories of how Phoenix is leading in the biosciences and stayed to cheer on three Phoenix companies who were finalists pitching their companies on the global stage.
For her dedicated efforts to build a thriving bioscience and healthcare community in her city, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is being honored with the 2022 AZBio Public Service Award.