Nipping at Montgomergy’s heels?

The Washington Business Journal printed an article on Friday about Biotech in Montgomery County.  It’s an interesting article about how other surrounding counties are trying to take a slice of the pie away from MoCo.

From the article:

“It begins, as do so many suburban economic development enterprises, with an incubator. And then many, many football fields worth of wet labs. That attracts the startups. Which attract the workers, who mold those startups into permanent fixtures. Next flows serious revenue and scores more workers, some of whom eventually leave and spawn even more startups.

A biotech industry is born.

It’s a scenario that is beginning to appeal to local counties and towns beyond Montgomery County, which has built the biggest biotech corridor in the Washington region over the last two decades.

All of Maryland counts 370 bioscience companies, and Montgomery County claims 250 of them.

Maryland is home to more than 60,000 bioscience workers in corporate, government and academic circles. Montgomery County says it houses 40,000 of them.”

I didn’t know that MoCo had that much of the pie, because so much seems to be happening in Frederick.  As I have alluded to before, Hopkins is doing their best to leverage their research programs and take a bite out of that pie, too.

And they also talk about how the counties are cooperating, echoing the rhetoric coming out of Montgomery County-centric TEDCO. Frederick County pays into TEDCO, yet we don’t seem to get nearly the number of programs and services that are granted MoCo.  I am sure the guys in Baltimore are saying the same thing.

And while the advantage of have a research facility like the NIH in Bethesda, the workforce demographics and the simple availability of affordable real estate make Frederick the preferred choice for Manufacturing facilities (not to take anything away from the Research at Ft Detrick).

I went to the main campus of the NIH a couple weeks for a seminar.  There is barely any open space left the to build on, although there was a lot of construction going on.  In another 10 or 15 years, I predict that the NIH will start moving north to Frederick, as evident by the recent proposed building of a new 100,000 sq foot NCI facility off Shookstown Road, just outside the Fort.

And knowing some of the people at NCI-Frederick, there is still this yearning to be on the “Main campus”.  There is a certain stature and status this conveys, like NCI-Frederick is a second class facility.

Who knows, maybe some day we’ll be calling ourselves North Bethesda?

Innocence Pays

Arguably one of the best-known Frederick County Biotech stories of all time were the inquiries into the Anthrax letters that paralyzed the Postal Service in late 2001-2002.

From the New York Times:
” Steven J. Hatfill is a former Army biodefense researcher who was intensively investigated as a “person of interest” in the deadly anthrax letters of 2001.
Dr. Hatfill, who worked at the Army’s laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., in the late 1990s, was the subject of a flood of media coverage beginning in mid-2002, after television cameras showed F.B.I. agents in biohazard suits searching his apartment near the Army base. He was later named a “person of interest” in the case by then Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking on national television.”

Yesterday, it was announced that he was granted a settlement with the government “consisting of $2.825 million in cash and an annuity paying Dr. Hatfill $150,000 a year for 20 years, brings to an end a five-year legal battle that had recently threatened a ( New York Times) reporter with large fines for declining to name sources she said she did not recall.”

The Anthrax attacks, which killed 5 people and hospitalized many more, have never been solved. Hatfield, worked at USAMRIID at Ft Detrick and conducted training in Bioterrorism for the CIA. The Anthrax used in the attacks was mapped and shown to be derived from strains propagated at Ft Detrick, and the results published in Science.

This story does bring back the fascination of seeing the Ft Detrick Apartments searched on National TV and the pictures of the crews draining the watershed in Northern Fred Co. looking for a glove box or some other evidence.

O’Malley’s $1.1 billion biotech initiative applauded

To counter my rant in the next post, here’s a more level headed evaluation, as printed in the Frederick News-Post:

Originally published June 24, 2008

By Ike Wilson
News-Post Staff

	AT A GLANCE Bio 2020 Initiative:n The creation of the “Maryland Biotechnology Center” — a “one stop shop” to showcase and support biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship in Maryland, and consolidate various State, academic and private sector ventures; > Expanding and improving Maryland’s Biotech Investment Tax Credit; > Growing Maryland’s technology incubator network; > Continuing to grow the state’s Stem Cell Research Fund created in 2006 to promote state-funded stem cell research and cures through grants and loans to public and private entities in the state.

Gov. Martin O’Malley’s recent announcement of a $1.1 billion biotechnology initiative will further boost Maryland as a competitive technology hub, several local business people agreed.

Under the BIO 2020 Initiative, announced by O’Malley June 16, Maryland will invest $1.1 billion in its bioscience industry over the next 10 years — the largest per capita investment in the biosciences made by any state in the country — to attract and grow biotechnology companies in Maryland.

Frederick Innovative Technology Center Executive Director Michael Dailey and local government officials met the governor at a biotechnology convention minutes after he made the announcement at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, where scientists are working with stem cells.

Dailey called the governor’s initiative “a tremendous opportunity for bio-tech entrepreneurs in Maryland.”

The initiative includes increased support for start-up companies as well as increased support for incubators in Maryland.

“I believe this support will establish Maryland as the premiere destination for new bio-tech companies and we are all looking forward to the growth and increased employment this initiative will generate,” Dailey said.

FITCI will use the additional funding to attract new clients to the center, and support them and existing clients, and increase the size of its facilities, Dailey said.

“With the governor’s plan, I believe FITCI is in a very favorable position to continue its success,” Dailey said.

Patrick Haley, chief executive officer of APE-BridgePath Scientific, said Monday he was excited about prospects the initiative will bring to Maryland.

“The proposed breakdown in funding between marketing efforts, academic institutions, private companies, state-funded grants and investments, incubator program enhancements, targeted research areas, such as stem cell and nanotechnology, life science, tax incentives, and the like is an excellent blend,” Haley said.

Haley said Maryland is already a leader in the biotech marketplace due to the concentration of life-science firms, research and development, academic institutions with strong science programs, and supportive governmental environments at the state and local levels.

He said the existing amount of federal research dollars awarded to Maryland schools and universities, the large number of federal governmental agencies located in the state and a highly-trained workforce are also significant factors.

“If the funding is distributed as proposed, it will leverage the state’s talents and strengths,” Haley said. “Bio 2020 is a natural fit for Maryland. I am pleased to see that a program is in the works that matches up so nicely with the state’s core competencies. I believe this program and others like it are a sound fiduciary decision.”

In a press release, O’Malley said the BIO 2020 Initiative will leverage Maryland’s science and technology assets and workforce to attract and grow bioscience opportunities in Maryland.

“Maryland is already nicknamed the ‘home of the genome’ and now must work to strengthen our position as a national and world leader in the research and development of ‘personalized medicine,’ groundbreaking new science which holds within it the potential to reshape the landscape of 21st century medicine,” O’Malley said in the statement. –

Key elements of the BIO 2020 Initiative are based on early recommendations from the Maryland’s Life Sciences Advisory Board, which began work last fall on a statewide strategic plan for bioscience in Maryland. The board is planning on publishing a full report later this year.

EDIT 6.26:  I hadn’t noticed that FNP doubled up on the quoted text.  I cut & paste the article becasue I was in a hurry yesterday.  Thank you to my editorial staff for pointing out the error.

MD 2020: Remembering my Youth

BioRegion News reporter Alex Philippidis posted excerts from a press conference governor O’Malley has at Bio 2008 last week in San Diego.

Here’s the skinny (or you can read the whole article here with free registration):

Maryland will use the $1.1 billion to expand several existing programs and create some new ones. The anchor of Bio 2020 is a planned new Maryland Biotechnology Center that would serve as a proverbial “one-stop shop” or single agency for life sciences companies seeking to relocate to Maryland or expand within the state.

Maryland would spend $91.5 million over 10 years, starting with $6 million in FY 2010, to launch and operate the center. The center “will be a one-stop facility that showcases and supports biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship in Maryland [as well as] an accessible and welcoming office staffed with knowledgeable and enthusiastic experts,” according to a promotional brochure from the state’s Department of Business and Economic Development.

The center would house the Maryland Technology Development Corp. or TEDCO’s tech transfer support operations; the life sciences industry regulatory functions now overseen by Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation; several industry experts charged with building and expanding state relationships with federal labs, universities, and businesses; as well as a statewide group charged with marketing the state’s science and technology efforts.

So I have to rant a bit on this story. Instead of calling this bold initiative “Bio 2020″, because this makes it sound that this government spending would only benefit Biotech people, why not call it MD 20/20? “MD” as in Maryland, not Mogen David. “MD” as in most of the money will end up somewhere brick & morter in new buildings at Johns Hopkins and Montgomery County. As in hind sight is 20/20? As in our Wild Irish Rose of a Governor is spending money like a drunken sailor?

I am not opposed to government spending to help build our industry and provide jobs. My point is merely that we see the money go down into a hole and we never see the results. Basic research is necessary and needs to be funded. This is what the NIH and Johns Hopkins are all about. But this research is already funded to the tune of billions of dollars annually in Federal government (as in NIH) and endowments (or in the case of JHU, double dipping on both fronts).

I hope that the lions share of the MD 20/20 funds go to private/public companies who’s existence is based upon being successful and producing a product that people need, want and will spend money for. The illusive, so-called “translational” research that actually produces something tangible, rather than another Monolith where a bunch of government bureaucrats sit around wringing their hands worrying how they are going to spend all of their grant money so they can get more next year.

That’s what turned me off to basic research 20 some years ago.  Every Year, as grants would come due, my PI would insist that I overspend each grant by between 5-8 %.  So I would drop $25-50,000 in a week on stuff like a new HPLC that we would never use, or may use eventually or new computers (which were just getting popular back in 1985), or some new camera for taking pictures of gels for publications.  Never anything we really needed, but we needed to overspend each grant so we coan go back and state “you didn’t give us enough money last year, so we’ll need to increase our funding by at least 10% next year becasue we’ve already overspent by 8% and need to pay for that stuff on top of our increased research.”

I don’t know, maybe I am just barking up the wrong tree, biting the hand that feeds me..

Invitrogen forms Integration team

I was reading last week on GenomeWeb daily that Invitrogen has formed an “Integration Team” to look at their most recent acquisition, ABI.

The quote is that they have tapped their head of global operations to lead the efforts and he..

has assembled a core leadership of over 30 highly talented, dedicated and hand-picked ‘change agents’ from both organizations who will take the best parts of their own organizations to plan for a stronger, better combination,” Invitrogen Chairman and CEO Greg Lucier said in a statement.

“We envision the new company being structured into businesses of molecular and cellular biology reagents, genetic sequencing systems and mass spectrometry,” he added.

Having been through an “Integration” event with IVGN in 2000 when about 1400 people in Maryland lost their jobs, I have some concerns. I temper this with the fact that the new leadership team at Invitrogen (whom I do not know personally and have never met other than superficially), many from GE and trained in the Jack Welsh management style, appear to be more skilled and possibly even more concerned about the motivation and well being of their employees.

There will certainly have to be some consolidation of the IT resources, distribution and Oligonucleotide synthesis operations between the two groups. I also speculate that the growing Stem Cell research group here in Frederick will benefit form having access to ABI’s data automation platforms.

If anyone out there knows the scuttlebutt, let me know. And good luck to my friends over at the Omega Center…

Bio-Defense at the Fort

The Washington Post ran a story on Friday about some of the Biodefense work being done at Ft Detrick. Unfortunately and predictably, the article starts out feeding the “conspiracy theorists” flames claims by making allusion to the 1995 movie Outbreak.

Despite the start, a more factual presentation of what really happens in the Hot Zone is presented, complete with slide show. You can check it out here. It talks about what the day-to-day operations inside the BL4 facility is really like by interviewing Dr. Lisa Hensley at NCI-Frederick.

It also sounds like the article is talking about jobs that may be available in this facility based on the expansion at the Fort. I makes me wonder if this is related to the job openings posted by AeroTek in the previous post?

3 Jobs Up for Grabs

It just doesn’t get any easier than this. 3 jobs at Ft Detrick up for grabs, via Lauren at Aerotek,

Ft Detrick that’s looking for 2 or 3 mid-level biological lab techs and they absolutely must have strong BSL-3+ experience. That’s right, you must enjoy wearing tyvek suits and being hooked up to breathable air. postion-122 postion-157 postion-268

The position descriptions are attached. There is no kick-back to FredCoBio, becasue there are rules in the blogosphere about generating revenue, like WordPress would request a couple hundred bucks a month instead of free web space. Maybe some day I’ll get there, but for now, it’s first come, first served. I am just trying to help boost Biotech jobs over that illusive 1% mark!

O’Malley to Make more Money Available to Md. Biotech

There is a feature story in the Baltimore Sun this morning from a speech the Governator gave at Hopkins yesterday. The story reveals a proposed 1.1 billion in Biotech spending over the next decade.

If you do the math, that’s only $110 million a year. If we already have, or are trying to get, $30 Million in Stem Cell funding, or at least trying to. From the article, it looks like the plan is to gradually increase the level of funding and add a few new programs above and beyond the Stem Cell Fund and Biotech investment tax credit programs, although these new programs remain to be specified.

Quoting the article:

Industry observers said yesterday that Maryland is uniquely positioned to capitalize on biotechnology, with its prestigious university research facilities and the National Institutes of Health and Army laboratories at Fort Detrick located in the state. Celera Genomics, a private biotech company based in Rockville, made global headlines when it sequenced the entire human genome in 2001.Maryland’s economy has undergone a long-term shift away from manufacturing to the services sector, and many economic development officials see biotechnology as key to that transformation.

Maybe this is a hint?

“Under a nine-point plan outlined by O’Malley yesterday, the state would build incubators that help small technology companies bring their ideas to market, expand a University of Maryland law school program to work with entrepreneurs to protect intellectual property, and direct at least $20 million annually to stem-cell research.”

More incubators is a good idea, but let’s make sure we get our share here “upstate in the Freestate” in Frederick, Washington, Allegheny & Garrett counties and it isn’t all squandered in Baltimore County. After all, Biotech still only accounts for only 1% of the total workforce in the State, but I am not complaining that we’re getting a disproportionate slice of the pie.

CRL Opens new Facility in conjucntion with NCI

There is a story in today’s FNP about a new 52,000 sq ft facility in Riverside Business Park off Monocacy Blvd.

With over 6,000 breeding cages and an estimated 1million mice shipped to NCI-Frederick a year, that’s a lot of mouse food.  Wonder what they’re doing with all the mousy dung?

IVGN to Acquire ABI

I just read a press release stating Invitrogen is purchasing ABI for $6.7 billion US dollars (that’s like $3 Billion Canadian dollars).

The press release talks about the instrument side of the ABI business, but I know ABI also make Primers in California.  I wonder if this will impact the group working here in Frederick in the sweat shop above the Chemical waste depot in the Distribution Center?