Peoria establishes first biomedical incubator

PEORIA, Ariz. (KSAZ) - Dr. John Rinehart has been involved with some very innovative research for the past four-and-a-half years, working for a company called Yolia Health.

"We have come up with a process to minimize anybody's need for reading glasses using a combination of rigid material contact lens and an enzyme drop," he said.

Yolia Health was established in Mexico, previously based out of California, and recently moved to Peoria, Arizona, but more specifically, to BioInspire, which is run by BioAccel, an incubator accelerator according to CEO Mary Anne Guerra.

"The idea is how do we take the best technology, get new companies started in Arizona and have them grow here, build here and draw strong economic growth in science," she said.

The answer is a relationship with the City of Peoria, which funded the facility and provides funding to the independent non-profit, in turn, BioAccel invests that in the other companies.

"The City of Peoria is a bedroom community," Scott White, the economic services director for the City of Peoria, said. "It was when we experienced economic downside. We wanted to change that, we wanted to change our economic base, so how do you do that? Growing an innovation economy became very important."

BioAccel also helps the companies like Yolia Health gain access to the Federal Drug Administration and get additional funding, which leads to more success.