Georgia Tech President G.P. (Bud) Peterson discusses the Global Center for Medical Innovation during a press conference at the 2009 BIO International Convention.

The planned Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) will be the first of its kind in the Southeast. The GCMI will include an extensive medical device prototyping center for the acceleration of development and commercialization of next-generation medical devices and technology and will be located adjacent to the Georgia Tech campus in Technology Enterprise Park, Atlanta. Support for the project comes from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Saint Joseph’s Translational Research Institute, Piedmont Healthcare, and the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA).

The GCMI was announced earlier this month by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue during the 2009 BIO International Convention in Atlanta. Dates for groundbreaking and completion were not announced.

The center is expected to bring together universities and research centers, drug and device companies, investors, and early-stage companies. “The convergence of the life sciences with engineering provides a unique opportunity to expand our technology in areas that will support the health care industry of the future,” says G. P. “Bud” Peterson, president of Georgia Tech. “The Global Center for Medical Innovation will bring together in one location the key infrastructure needed to rapidly move new medical devices and new medical technologies to market.”

In addition to the prototyping center, the GMCI will produce evaluation devices using “good manufacturing practices” mandated by the FDA as well as manage, coordinate and aggregate intellectual property from the partner organizations and interested private companies.

“Medical device companies in the Southeast have long suffered a disadvantage compared to competitors that have access to long-established support networks,” says Nicolas Chronos, president of the Saint Joseph’s Translational Research Institute and well-known cardiologist and researcher. “The new Georgia center will allow companies to contract with a single entity for comprehensive development activities, create a single location for investors seeking qualified medical device companies, and allow innovations developed by multiple institutions to be combined to create more useful devices.”