CLEVELAND -- The nation's poorest city is banking on health care and biotech industries to pump life back into the ailing economy.

Cleveland is vying to become the heart of the multibillion-dollar business in the heartland. Nearly 400 visitors from all aspects of the field are in Cleveland this week for the Bio Mid-America Venture Forum.

"Cleveland went from not being on the radar to being one of the nation's hot spots for health care commercialization the last couple of years," said Bio Enterprises' Baiju Shah.

Gov. Bob Taft spoke to the group Tuesday and toured several biotech companies.

"This is a great opportunity to showcase Cleveland as a growing center for bioscience biotech," said Taft.

And the field is growing. There are more than 400 companies already in Cleveland.

Axiomed Spine Corp. is one of them. The company makes the Freedom lumbar disk, an artificial disk for patients who suffer from degenerative spine disease.

Right now, development and research in preparation for clinical trials is done in Cleveland. Soon, they would like to bring manufacturing jobs from California to Garfield Heights.

"It's not only that we create jobs for Axiomed, we create jobs for our suppliers. As we are successful with our other suppliers, we're going to be impacting throughout the state," said Axiomed's Pat McBrayer.

Experts say that's what is needed to help the economy out of critical condition.

Last year, 50 bioscience companies either moved to Ohio or started business here. Nearly half chose northeast Ohio.