Jumping Into Biotech with Both Feet
Southern Communities are Taking a “No Holds Barred” Approach to Attracting Biotech

By Trisha Ostrowski

There is a rather colorful, southern-in-origin expression that describes a reckless determination to win--“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” Forgive the history lesson, but this phrase actually had its beginning in the Civil War. The “torpedoes” were exploding mines placed by the Confederates in Mobile Bay to keep Union ships from getting close enough to bombard this southern seaport. Despite the caution warranted under such risky conditions, one Union captain directed his ship to enter Mobile Bay, not at a reasonable pace to avoid hitting the mines, but rather “full speed ahead.” Amazingly, this man lived to tell about his adventure.

Several communities across the South are taking this same “damn the torpedoes” approach when it comes to building biotech. Despite the risks, southern economic developers and political leaders have placed a target on the recruitment of life sciences. They’re pursuing the industry with a “no holds barred,” “no turning back,” “let’s bet the farm,” “won’t take no for an answer” strategy. And in most cases, taking the risk is paying off big.

These communities have made the crucial decision to go on a limb with no guarantee of success. They’re not traditional biotech hotspots. Instead, their bio attraction efforts are self-made and homegrown. They’ve jumped into biotech without the safety net of a major medical center or a major university to drive their efforts. In many instances, the area universities and hospitals have gotten on board only after community leaders have already put a life sciences initiative in place.

As they seek biotech glory, these markets are moving full-speed ahead and putting millions into building infrastructure such as research institutes, business incubators, commercialization assistance, and funding programs. Behind their effort and investment is the belief that the South will be the next great biotech region—that this region will outperform all others in investment and job creation for bio in the near future—just as it has in all other industry sectors.

With great will power and sheer determination, some communities across the South are risking big to build a biotech cluster. But with big risk, comes sweet reward.

Here’s a look at nine of the South’s markets that have “jumped into bio with both feet.”

Huntsville, Alabama  

Huntsville’s biotech industry is mostly homegrown, and the overwhelming sentiment from all the players in the community is to keep it home and growing. Biotech in Huntsville originated back in 1987 when Jim Hudson founded Research Genetics. The company became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of artificial DNA and put Huntsville on the biotech map. Hudson sold the company to Invitrogen in 2000 and Invitrogen promptly shut down Huntsville operations. Hudson, his protégées, and area leaders, however, would not let the community’s biotech effort die. In August 2005 the Hudson Alpha Institute of Biotechnology (HAIB) was announced and with its advent, Huntsville is poised to get on the life sciences map with a vengeance. The HAIB, centerpiece of the $120 Cummings Research Park Biotech Campus, also announced by Hudson and the City of Huntsville in August, will augment biotech development infrastructure and support innovation in Alabama, throughout the U.S., and around the world.

Kansas City, Kansas  

The critical factor that set Kansas City on the path to bio success is the presence of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which aspires to be one of the most innovative biomedical research organizations in the world. Stowers boasts a $2 billion endowment, making it the best-endowed research facility in the country by a long shot. When Stowers first announced it would open in the community, Kansas City’s business leaders came together to ask some important questions: “How can we use this gift to spur biotech development here?” “What do we need to do to build critical mass of expertise and technologies needed to vault Kansas City into the biomedical big leagues?” Leaders set the goal in 1999 to increase research at the area’s universities from $100 million to $500 million in a 10-year period. To help obtain that goal, the Kansas City Life Sciences Institute was created, a not-for-profit organization to foster collaborations and resource sharing between the area’s private sector, academia, and government. As of 2005, Kansas City is halfway to its research-funding goal, showing the high priority bio attraction is taking in Kansas City. In addition, Kansas City is making an all-out effort to attract outside firms, increasing venture funding, angel investors, and biotech infrastructure. “We’ve had some of the success we want to see,” said Bob Marcusse, president and CEO of Kansas City Area Development Council, “But we see an even greater opportunity in the Kansas City area to achieve a higher level of significance in the industry.”

Shreveport/Northwest Louisiana  

Biotech in Northwest Louisiana was born in a time of adversity. In 1986, in the midst of a statewide economic recession due to the collapse of the oil industry, an economic development study was completed that stressed the importance of diversifying the economy so that Northwest Louisiana could compete in the 21 st Century. Out of that study, the Biomedical Research Foundation (BRF) of Northwest Louisiana was developed as an independent, not-for-profit, economic development and research organization. Seed money for the foundation was provided by the Caddo Parish Commission and the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce as well as a number of other community groups and area residents. With a long-term vision, Caddo Parish citizens approved a special five-year property tax to support the foundation and to establish a technology and research park. In 2001, voters again renewed the special property tax for 16 years with the intention of using the funds as seed money to transform Shreveport into a destination for advanced technology. Thanks to the community’s belief in biotech, InterTech Science Park is now becoming a reality. The 800-acre park is expected to contribute 6,000 jobs in the next 25 years and focuses on collaboration with healthcare providers, academia, entrepreneurs and the community at large. The park features a $12 million wet lab incubator set to open fall 2005. BRF has set a $1.8 million goal for equipment and endowment for the project and seed money in the form of $1 million has already been raised through the community and the Kresge Foundation.

Palm Beach County, Florida

Palm Beach County was already working to develop a bio cluster modeled after North Carolina’s Research Triangle when Scripps Research Institute decided to start an East Coast operation there in October 2003. Ever since, the county has definitely been on the fast track in bio attraction.

The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (BDB) had been working to create a new economic vision for the county since 2002 and was focused on attracting and developing the Life Science Industry. The fact that the community had already jumped in with both feet was a major factor in being prepared when Scripps came calling. In less than two weeks between getting the initial call and the institute’s visit, BDB assembled a team of business and government leaders to promote the county’s resources to an unknown prospect. The team researched prospective sites, funding mechanisms, workforce availability and educational programs that met the institute’s criteria. In less than 48 hours, the BDB team assembled sites and came up with a strategy for funding a considerable incentive package. In addition to the major win of Scripps, the community is definitely starting to see other results from its biotech preparation. For instance, in August 2005, specialty pharmaceutical company Osmotica Pharmaceutical announced that is will relocate its corporate headquarters to Boca Raton.

Memphis, Tennessee

A local entrepreneur made a donation that has likely changed the course of Memphis’ economic development history. He made the founding donation for the Memphis Biotech Foundation (now called Memphis BioWorks Foundation), a nonprofit organization created in 2001 to help build the infrastructure and partnerships in the fast-growing biomedical field. The foundation has helped foster education, commercialization and research activities. Memphis BioWorks’ launch was followed by a yearlong effort by Memphis 2005, the City of Memphis, Shelby County Government, the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, and others to bring together the community’s biotechnology resources and to accelerate the industry’s development in Memphis. Memphis BioWorks has also spurred the development of a large research park in Downtown Memphis to capitalize ion the area’s strengths in medical device manufacturing. A BioWorks council was formed, uniting 75 organizations, companies, and individuals to educate Memphis residents about biotech and to promote Memphis’ assets outside of the region. Especially in the past couple of years, Memphis is definitely seeing results from jumping in with both feet. In 2004 alone, demolition of the old Baptist Medical Center complex began to make way for a new biotech research park and a biocontainment lab paid for primarily by the Department of Homeland Security. St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital began a $1 billion expansion; the state of Tennessee announced $53 million in funding of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee-Memphis, and GTx, a homegrown Memphis biotech firm completed a highly successful IPO raising over $50 million. “Consensus of leadership is key to Memphis’ success in biotech. From the academic, business, and political communities and even the general public, we are all on the same page of the plan,” explains Mike Demster, vice president of biomedical business development for the Memphis Area Chamber. “We are all involved in creating success for the life sciences in Memphis, and that’s what it takes for this type of development to come to life.”

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

In Oklahoma City, the community is moving ahead with “Forward Oklahoma City II,” an aggressive $12 million, five-year economic development program funded by more than 200 companies and operated by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. The goal is to develop national recognition for the Oklahoma Bioscience Industry Cluster. How? By launching a cutting-edge media campaign in top industry journals to raise awareness of Oklahoma City’s life sciences assets, drive customers to its Web site, and support company and personnel recruitment partnerships. Don’t think a lack of world-class research facilities is going to slow down Oklahoma City’s forward moving progress, either. Oklahoma City is taking the first step to building an educational infrastructure with a bioinformatics associate degree in applied science at the Oklahoma City Community College beginning this fall. The degree is not only the first of its kind to be offered in the state, it is one of only a few in the world.

Ardmore, Oklahoma

Ardmore officials are looking to the future and the prospect of attracting and biotechnology professionals to its corner of Oklahoma. The small community of 33,000 recently took a big risk when it opened the Ardmore Technology Transfer Center at the Southern Oklahoma Technology Center campus. The technology transfer center serves as an incubator for startup and existing businesses. Offering a low starting rent of $3 per square foot, companies can work on their business development with few financial challenges. The Center gives Ardmore an avenue to go after technology-based companies and the collaboration with the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, a nonprofit organization that explores and researches ways to improve agricultural practices through agriculture, plant biology and forage improvement, gives the city the credibility to recruit biotech and tech companies. The technology transfer center consists of four modular buildings donated by the Noble Foundation totaling 4,000 square feet. Laboratory facilities make up half of the square-footage. In the next two to five years there are plans to add a 10,000- to 25,000-square-foot permanent building. Ardmore is also offering companies attractive incentives to move into the incubator: companies are free from state income tax for up to 10 years.

Williamson County, Tennessee

Williamson County officials and state economic leaders are working behind the scenes to create an incentive package designed to entice global biotech and pharmaceutical firms to the county’s just-opened $74 million Cool Springs Life Sciences Center (CSLSC). After a few false starts and raised hopes as the region’s leaders have pursued biotechnology development, the CSLSC seems to be a “best bet for biotech,” a nomenclature also given to Middle Tennessee’s Dr. Sam Lynch, a former Harvard Medical School professor and alumni. When he moved to the region to be near family, he brought with him from Long Island, N.Y., his business, BioMimetic Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, commercialization and ultimate marketing of protein therapeutics for tissue and organ regeneration. The company serves as the prototype for Williamson County with venture capital investments and a promising future.

Greenwood, South Carolina

Greenwood has been quietly building a biotechnology hub on the foundation of genetic research for the past 25 years. But one of South Carolina’s best-kept biosciences secrets is not a secret any more. The southern region is going prime time with a life sciences initiative that incorporates four strategic home-grown research and development centers: the Greenwood Genetic Center, the J.C. Self Research Institute on Human Genetics, the SC Biotechnology Incubation Facility, and the Greenwood Biotechnology Park. These centers have already gained the attention of companies like Pfizer’s Capsugel. Now, Greenwood County is making a major push to attract even more biotech to the region through a $15 million partnership between the Greenwood Genetic Center and Clemson University. The duo plans to build a new R&D facility to find causes and cures for birth disorders and susceptibility to premature birth, hypertension, obesity and diabetes. The new 20,000-square-foot facility will serve as a focal point for distance education programs and provide laboratories, classrooms and office space on the Greenwood campus.