Port Authority’s clean room leased for genetic testing

• New Albany-based Chromocare Limited and Canadian company Firefly Diagnostics leased the clean room.
• Chromocare President Jeff Garshon said the workforce could grow from 10 to 100 within two years.
• The Port Authority built the speculative Horton Building with 1,000-square foot clean room in 2011.

HEATH – A central Ohio company and a Canadian company have joined forces to do genetic testing for drug compatibility at a facility in Heath.

New Albany-based Chromocare Limited and Canadian company Firefly Diagnostics have leased the Port Authority’s Horton Building clean room at the Central Ohio Aerospace and Technology Center.

The Port Authority built the speculative Horton Building with a 1,000-square-foot clean room in 2011. The building has space for three additional clean rooms.

Chromocare President Jeff Garshon said the Horton Building is the perfect place for the companies to do their testing, and expansions could employ up to 100 people in Heath.

“We think it’s a world-class facility,” Garshon said. “The whole aerospace and technology center is wonderful. There’s nothing comparable in Columbus. To us, it was just a much better choice.”

The laboratory will use the latest in genomic technology and employ five to 10 highly trained lab staff, including molecular biologists, geneticists and clinical chemists, according to a Chromocare news release.

The companies could, within two years, use the extra space for more clean rooms.

“It’s an absolute possibility,” Garshon said. “It’s in our business plan, and one of the reasons we chose that building. Our long-term plan is to hire 100 to work in that building.”

The lease is for three years, with an option for three additional years.

Rick Platt, executive director of the Heath, Newark, Licking County Port Authority, said it’s gratifying to know the decision to build the Horton Building with the clean room has paid off.

“It was definitely a leap of faith,” Platt said. “We don’t know anybody else that built a speculative clean room. It does feel good that leap of faith will pay dividends for the local economy.”

Chromocare and Firefly developed the Genetic Assisted Prescribing Test, which enables health care providers to identify the prescription drugs that will work best for patients based on a mouth swab.

The test assesses 10 genes and allows physicians to see how patients will respond to treatments in 12 therapeutic categories including cardiovascular disease, depression, pain management and cancer, among others.

“We don’t see many genecticists in Licking County,” Platt said. “They’ve got some one-of-a-kind equipment there to do the testing.”

kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @kmallett1958