Takeda and Ecolab Expand MAA Involvement

 // News

January 18  

The Medical Alley Association is thrilled to kick off 2018 with an exciting membership announcement. Two members, Ecolab Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., have expanded their involvement and investment in the Association, solidifying themselves as foundational and sustaining members, respectively.

Ecolab is one of Minnesota’s keystone companies and has been since its founding in 1923. The globally recognized giant employs about 47,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in St. Paul. In addition to expanding their membership with the Association, Ecolab’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Healthcare, Paul Chaffin, will be representing the company on the Medical Alley Association’s Board of Directors.

“I’m thrilled to join the Medical Alley Board of Directors and look forward to helping the Association continue to fulfill its mission to bring innovation to the healthcare industry.” Chaffin said, “Ecolab has been a Minnesota company since our founding in 1923 and we continue to believe in our state’s bright future. Our goals of making the world cleaner, safer and healthier are particularly important and relevant today in healthcare. I look forward to working closely with the Medical Alley team and other board members to help influence the continued evolution of the industry and ensure Minnesota remains the epicenter for healthcare talent, innovation and investment.”

Takeda Pharmaceuticals is a relative newcomer to Medical Alley, having opened its facility in Brooklyn Park in 2015, but has been an eager and influential member since joining the Association. Takeda, founded in 1781, is the largest pharmaceutical company in Asia, but has been focused on growing their presence in the United States.

“Takeda is excited about establishing our first US-based manufacturing facility in Minnesota. Setting up a large-scale biopharmaceutical production facility is complex and requires a significant amount of infrastructure and highly skilled resources,” said Eric Hahn, site head at Takeda’s Brooklyn Park facility. “Since Takeda’s acquisition of the Brooklyn Park site in December 2015, we have been very impressed with our ability to leverage local resources and talent as we work to set up our manufacturing operations. Overall, the ecosystem here in Minnesota has been really well suited to meet our needs.”

Andrew Kaplan, Takeda’s Vice President of Government & External Affairs, who spoke at MAA’s 2017 PharmaBio conference added, “Being a positive member of a community is something that Takeda takes very seriously and we could not have a better partner than the Medial Alley Association. From the very beginning, MAA has been a tremendous help to Takeda at building bridges and partnerships in Minnesota and specifically Brooklyn Park. There is no better advocate in Minnesota for the Life Sciences industry than MAA. Not only do they bring the industry together to work on tough issues, they unify and amply our voices with policy makers and regulators.”

As we look toward the future, we are glad to have both of these powerful voices joining 3M, Abbott, Boston Scientific, FedEx, Frederickson & Byron, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Smiths Medical, The University of Minnesota, Upsher-Smith, Coloplast, and Cantel Medical as foundational and sustaining members. Thanks to these and the rest of our outstanding members, Medical Alley continues to thrive as the global epicenter of health innovation and care.

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