Baylog’s Biotech

I’ve enjoyed Jason Balog’s write-ups about Biotech in the FNP. I believe this is the second one.  He seems to have an interesting angle on the events of the times and certainly has a good grasp of the local Biotech scene.

Among the interesting points:

• approximately two dozen lawmakers were forming a biotechnology and life sciences caucus to promote the industry throughout the state.
• The Biotechnology Investment Incentive Tax Credit remained intact and was again funded in the budget at the amount of $6 million
• The Md Stem Cell Research fund “did suffer a cut, I am happy to report that lawmakers settled on $19 million for the fund with $1 million more possible, depending on the availability of extra money from the Cigarette Restitution Fund.”
  • My Rant here:  Funding Stem Cell research with tobacco money? Oh, the horror.  In case you forgot, a vast majority of MdSCRF funding went to Hopkins who, by the way, already make a boat load of cash treating patients who use tobacco.

And the summary paragraph:

It was a quiet year in the legislature on the life sciences front. The current budget situation did not allow for the expansion of current programs or the initiation of new programs. However, momentum continues to build for the life sciences industry in the state as reflected by the creation of the new biotechnology and life sciences caucus. Many anticipate that the next two legislative sessions are going to be critical for the industry to grow in Maryland, and assuming that the economy cooperates I would expect to see new and exciting initiatives to help Maryland become the premier location for the life sciences industry.

Too many topics, too little time

Today, as the weather breaks and the sun warms the ground, there are so many stories coming out from little old Frederick County, I won’t be able to do justice to them all.

In the Frederick News-Post today there are three interesting articles: The Tech Transfer Boon at the Fort, Our Resident Supply of Infected Mosquitos and an infestation of “cRusty crabs” in the Monocacy.

The first article is about The Fort Detrick Technology Transfer Initiative (FDTTI), where start-ups like me have access to technology developed at Ft Detrick. 11 companies have received FDTTI funding, nine of them are from Maryland, four from Frederick, with three from FITCI.

I was very interested about the growth of genetically-modified mosquitoes within Fort Detrick, because I am sure someone will read this and mount a new round of protests about GMO and all of the wide-spread pain and pestilence that is cultivated behind the concertina-wired walls of the Fort. Actually, I found it interesting because we know one of the PI’s at the lab through our daughter’s primary school. They are not really making GMM’s (genetically-modified mosquitoes), not there’s anything wrong with that or that they’d tell us if they were. I’ll bet there are plenty of GM-drosophila (fruit flies), though.

The third story is about the invasion of the Upper Monocacy with “rusty crayfish“, theorized to come form dumped bait buckets. So the DNR would like to ban fishing with crayfish in the Monocacy to prevent further spread of the invaders, which overwhelm the native crawdads and compete with game fish food resources. From the sounds of it, the rusties are much bigger and reddish in hue. Maybe they can be farmed for human consumption?

On to the other news:

Since posts about Jobs seem to popular, I saw a news feed about a Bioscience Career Fair in Bethesda. I’ll just cut and paste the feed:

BioSpace, the world’s leading online bioscience job board and life science career fair company, will host

the BioCapital Career Fair in Bethesda, MD on Thursday, April 17, 2008. The

event will take place at the Bethesda Marriott from 11 am to 4 pm. Life science professionals from across the BioCapital region including

Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., will attend the biotech

job fair to meet in person with leading biotech and pharmaceutical

companies. Candidates will interview for careers with Aerotek Scientific,

Emergent BioSolutions, Lockheed Martin, SAIC-Frederick and many others.

Companies at the event will be hiring to fill clinical research jobs,

science jobs, engineering jobs, pharmaceutical sales jobs, formulation jobs

and a myriad of other opportunities.

The last BioCapital Career Fair, held on October 23, 2007, provided the

employers with over 500 pre-registered job seekers. Before the event

several exhibitors took advantage of the private BioSpace Career Fair

resume database to scout talent and schedule interviews ahead of time.

BioSpace encourages interested career fair candidates to pre-register

for the event at:
http://careers.biospace.com/Jobs/Public/CareerReceptionDetails.aspx?RECEPTION_ID=139

Candidates are required to hold a four year degree in a relevant

discipline and have at least two years of experience in a

bioscience-related field or industry.

The Bethesda Marriott is located at 5151 Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland.

And last, but not least, a nice bit of news coming out from ImQuest, on Executive Way. ImQuest BioSciences, Inc. announced today the publication of the results of an important structure- activity relationship study to investigate the efficacy and toxicity of a series of pyrimidinedione analogs against HIV-1 and HIV-2.

Maybe they need to have a Job Board, too!

More News on Md Stem Cell Funding

Just a quick follow-up on Jason Balog’s FNP article last week. I’ve seen a couple different angles on the same story I wanted to report on since I know you’re all on the edge of you seats. Really, I’m just looking for any excuse not to do the real work I am commissioned for at the moment, writing Preventive Maintenance SOPs.

This from the Daily Women’s Health Policy Report:

Maryland House Approves FY 2009 Budget That Reduces Stem Cell Research Funding
[March 21, 2008]

The Maryland House of Delegates on Wednesday voted 105-34 to approve a fiscal year 2009 budget that reduces funding for the state’s stem cell research program to $15 million, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) allocated $23 million for the program in his budget proposal. The Senate last week approved its FY 2009 budget that reduces funding for the program to $5 million, the Post reports (Wagner, Washington Post, 3/21).

During debate over the budget, the House rejected two amendments proposed by House Minority Leader Anthony O’Donnell (R) and Del. Tony McConkey (R) that would have eliminated even more funding for the stem cell research program. McConkey argued that the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, which administers the grants, has been slow in distributing two previous rounds of funding provided by the Legislature (Wagner, Washington Post, 3/20). “I think this is a reasonable amendment given our fiscal situation,” McConkey said.

Del. John Bohanan (D) said eliminating all the funding could wipe out the stem cell program. “One year of hiatus causes enough disruption to this program that we may as well opt out of it and not fund it ever again,” Bohanan said (Witte, AP/Washington Times, 3/20). It is important that the state maintain its commitment to stem cell research given federal funding restrictions, Bohanan said. He added, “This is an important program that we’ve just begun” (Washington Post, 3/20).

I heard last year that a number of people who had been funded are really getting annoyed at TEDCO, because they haven’t received monies they were granted (presumably in 4Q 2007 funds were supposed to be available). Now it is apparent that one of the main reasons funding is being cut is because TEDCO hasn’t paid out the funds already authorized. There is some perception that they have $20MM sitting around in a check book somewhere. I am not certain how the speding authozation process takes place, but I’m pretty sure this is not the case.

On 15 March, the Baltimore Sun reports:

First among them is the House’s move to fund the state’s embryonic stem cell research grant program at $15 million - an $8 million cut - compared with the Senate’s efforts to bring that funding down to $5 million.

The disagreement centers on the fact that of the $38 million appropriated to the program in the two years since the General Assembly agreed to fund stem cell research, only $7.1 million has been spent, with $8 million more committed.

Some Republicans have called for cutting the entire $23 million O’Malley proposed.

In yesterday’s House hearing, Del. John L. Bohanan Jr., a St. Mary’s County Democrat, asked fellow members of the Appropriations Committee to vote down an amendment proposed by Del. Gail H. Bates, a Howard County Republican, who sought to cut all the money this year.

“No matter how you slice it, it is a major hiccup for this developing industry,” he said. “If you do that, it would send a bad signal to researchers.”

“I’m suggesting this is the time to hiccup,” Bates said, noting the economic downturn. The committee voted against Bates’ amendment and several other GOP efforts to impose more cuts. Bates and Del. Susan L.M. Aumann, a Baltimore County Republican, said more reductions were necessary to prepare for the possibility that the economy will get worse.

This quote just boils my blood! It is NOT AN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH FUND!!! Only a small amount of the initial fund went to anyone doing Embryonic stem cell research. By the way, this research would still have to follow federal guidelines, using approved ES lines, lest the researchers be disqualified from receiving any funding from the NIH.

So, in a strange twist of fate, the problem hinges on the fact TEDCO can’t spend money fast enough.

Stem Cells and the Butz Brothers

A couple of interesting things in the FNP Business section today. I heard before that the Maryland Stem Cell Commission has not been paying out the funds granted in 2007 and this has put funding for 2008 in extreme jeopardy. Add to that the (perceived) down-turn in the economy,and now additional funds are on the chopping block.

This from Jason Balog’s Biotech article in today’s FNP:

Within the past few weeks the senate’s Health, Education and Human Resources subcommittee has reduced the amount of funding in the governor’s proposed budget from $23 million to $5 million.

Also duly noted:

Maryland has repeatedly announced its desire to be a leader of the life sciences industry and has demonstrated its commitment to stem cell research. However, without a dedicated funding source, it is likely that the Stem Cell Research Fund will be depleted in the future when the state is in need of funds. This is a situation that must be addressed if Maryland hopes to be a leader in the industry. As previously mentioned, Maryland is not the only state that has committed to stem cell research. While most states have made a modest investment similar to Maryland’s, California, Massachusetts and New York have raised the stakes by announcing 10 year commitments of $3 billion, $1 billion and $500 million, respectively. California went so far as to fund its research through the sale of bonds. It is this type of commitment that is necessary to grow an industry.

I am not at all surprised.

On the brighter side, this picture reminds me that I need to get the next BioBeers organized:

As you may know , aside from isolating stem cells from afterbirth, I also do Biodiesel testing through Advanced Product Enterprises Biodiesel. I am glad to help Chesapeake Green Fuels move their process along. We met about a year ago at an event in Rockville,struck up a conversation about the problems they were having getting quality, timely test results, made a few phone calls to our friends at PerkinElmer and FITCI and by October 2007 we were in he Biodiesel testing business. I know that Jeremey has promised to attend the next BioBeers as well as Jason Balog and George Cox at Miles Stockbridge, whom I have met on several occasions.

I also received an invitation from the guys at Flying Dog to host the next one at the Brewery on Wedgewood, so it’s about time I get off my but and get this thing going.

***3/24  CLARIFICATION:   The picture shows the Butz brother hoisting ball jars of Biodiesel & Chicken fat.  I just though it looked like it may be beer and that made my thoughts wander to the next BioBeers event!  Although Biodiesel is non-hazardous and can be consumed by humans, this activity is neither suggested nor endorsed by the author.  Instead, why not enjoy an ice cold Gonzo Imperial Porter?

Leaving the Nest

There is a nice article in the FNP today about how incubator companies find it hard to afford Lab space once they move out of the incubator system. I don’t disagree, but the time comes when we all have to leave the nest. Not leaving the nest means you were not very successful. The article cites data provided by a study commissioned by TEDCO, as well as some facts supplied by Mike Dailey in a briefing to County Commissioners in November.

Here is the link to the Executive summary of TEDCO’s study on Maryland incubators’ economic impact is from the TEDCO website: www.marylandtedco.org

Key Data Points Resulting From the Impact Analysis:
Incubator Firms in 2006:

• Employed 14,044 employees in the state (5,374 direct employees and 8,670 indirect employees)
• These jobs contributed $845 million in annual salary and benefits to Maryland households
• Gross state product contributions totaled $1.2 billion
• Increased state output by $2.7 billion per year
• Contributed $104 million in state and local taxes.
Incubators in Maryland:
• 18 technology incubators in operation comprising 453,061 square feet
• 4 proposed technology incubators

Future Implications:

• Maryland has a strong high-tech industry, with over 15,000 establishments employing almost 200,000 in 2006.
• The average annual pay for high-tech jobs is $75,000, more than 60% higher than the statewide average annual wage of $46,000.
• The high-tech industry in Maryland overall has a location quotient of 1.54, indicating that employment in high-tech industries in Maryland is more highly concentrated than in other states in the nation. (An LQ between 0.75 and 1.25 is interpreted to mean that employment is similar to the national average. An LQ above 1.25 indicates concentration).
• The three most concentrated industries are management, scientific, and technical consulting services (LQ = 3.01); computer systems design and related services (LQ = 2.33); and communications equipment manufacturing (LQ =2.06).
• Academic R&D totaled $2.36 billion in 2005. This is the fourth highest in the nation and surpasses North Carolina, Massachusetts and Virginia. (that was mis-quoted in the FNP article)
• There are over 40 research centers in Maryland, including a significant presence of federal labs and prominent university institutes.
• Taken together, these facts provide the state with a strong foundation for additional technology incubator growth.

AT A GLANCE Frederick Innovative Technology Center’s impact to date

> Frederick County Commissioners invested $275,000

> Maryland donated $8.27 for each county dollar spent:

> TEDCO grants totaled $1,625,000

> Maryland DBED grants totaled $650,000

> Each FITCI job worth $7,404 in state and local taxes

> 106 jobs at FITCI worth $784,962 in state and local taxes

> FITCI tenants and graduates received more than $6.5 million in outside investment and more than $6.8 million in government grants

Source: Michael Dailey, executive director, FITCI, briefing to county commissioners, Nov. 20, 2007 (as reported in the Frederick News-Post 1/31/200

I have interviewed Mike already and am awaiting his return of my Blogterview questions.  Hopefully, we’ll have that together soon.

Homeland Security lab at Fort Detrick 60 percent complete

There was a good article published in yesterday’s FNP about progress at Ft Detrick’s NIBC project. It was actually a merger between on posted the day before about the MD Biotech Investment Tax Credit: worth the Effort written by Jason Balog of Miles & Stockbridge. I have something to say about both.

With regard to the Tax Credit, let me relay my experience from attempting to obtain this credit last year. As the writer points out

“Although Maryland has some of the best programs in the country to assist start-up companies, most early stage companies are funded through the investment of the founders, their friends and families, and private individual investors known as “angels.” The Biotechnology Tax Credit was passed with the specific intention of encouraging this type of investment and in turn encouraging the growth of an industry.”

My application, despite numerous phone calls and two separate trips to Inner Harbor/Downtown Baltimore to hand deliver items that were not even specified as being necessary nor obvious in the application process, was reject on the basis that my company was not an “ongoing concern”. I think that was legalese for saying I was not really up and running and had no revenue on the books at this point in time, although i was paying rent at FITCI and making products and providing services. I thought that maybe I could catch a break and recover a bit of the $80-100,000 of my money (my family’s money) I was going to be investing to start my business. Not an ongoing concern.

You know what’s really funny, my partner at Advanced Product Enterprises, despite being in operation for 2 years at the time and generating a good amount of revenue, got the same rejection letter.

So in our case, the attempt to get the tax credit I wasted about $100 in fees associated with the application and lost at least 40 hours of productivity filling out the forms and delivering the goods. Clearly, not worth the effort. I wonder who got all of the money? I’ll have to look into that.

In the other part of the article, I attended the AFCEA luncheon on Jan 15th, featuring Michael Jewett, Chief, Integrated Planning Office and Program Manager, National Interagency Biodefense Campus (NIBC) at Ft. Detrick. He gave an excellent overview of the program, the building etc. He even showed an interactive Quicktime movie that allowed you to take a virtual tour of the BSL4 facilities. I believe that this should be available somewhere through freedom of information act, but I was not able to find it. I was able to find this overview, which is very similar to a presentation at AFCEA a couple months ago.

Just a reminder about AFCEA Frederick, if you are not familiar. The Frederick Chapter is based on getting more information out about what kinds of programs and resources are available through the Federal Government Agencies at Ft Detrick and it’s based primarily around the Biological nature of the businesses. There is a lunch Seminar on the third Tuesday of every month, and so far the seminars have been interesting and very informative. That food isn’t bad either, but they could use some work on their web site. I think in the future they are going to make all of the presentations available on-line.

Moore Wealth

As I said a couple weeks ago, I want to start being a bit less dependent on the local news feeds and start to try to generate some of my own newsworthy posts. A few weeks ago I sent a requests to complete a “Blogterview” questionarie. I actually have one that has been returned (last week actually, but I was lazy and haven’t followed-up).

I was introduced to Shabri shortly after moving into the incubator program here at FITCI. It seems that many entrepreneurs need financial advice and Shabri & company is almost like our surrogate investment advisory committe.

So I posed a few straight forward questions:

Fredcobio: What is the single most important thing a person can do with their money, aside from spending it?

Moore Wealth: Investing it. But of course, I’m going to say that!

Fredcobio: If a person wants to start their own business, what (free) advice would you give them?

Moore Wealth: Take the time to write a business plan.

Fredcobio: What is the biggest mistake people make when they start a business?

Moore Wealth: Not writing a business plan. It doesn’t have to be complicated. A quote from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean sums it up nicely “they’re really just guidelines you know”.

Fredcobio: If you were 40 years old (with a spouse and two Middle school aged children) and got laid off today and had $100,000 in your 401K plan, what would you do with it?

Moore Wealth: Roll it over into an IRA that you control. Just like you would never leave money in a bank account when you move from one city to another, never leave money in a company that you no longer work for. Then find a job!

Moore Wealth took advantage of my offer for Free Advertising a while back.  There may be a couple more added to the list and I have been approached by some people actually offering to pay to sponsor the blog!  I would like to find someone to sponsor BioBeers, but we can wait for the third or fourth one for that.

Congrats to Neuronascent on Landing DBED Funding

A quick shout out to our friends at Neuronascent for landing $50,000 in DBED funding, according to an article today in the Baltimore Business Journal

I have been working with them on a number of projects using my amniotic stem cells.  Using their Cellomics ArrayScan machine, they can probe live cultures for hundreds of different markers and take some pretty nice pictures, too.

And I know  this article says that they are a Carrol County company, but their lab in in Frederick County, so they deserve a post here.

California Stem Cell Report

According to the California Stem Cell Report, Novocell and International Stem Cell Corp. are among the first 10 companies seeking grants from California’s $3 billion stem cell agency.

So what do this have to do with Frederick County Biotech? The answer lies with a small group of dedicated scientists who occupy a vintage house and an unassuming lab in a strip mall in Walkersville, Lifeline Cell Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Stem Cell Corp.

According to the blog, International Stem Cell Corp

“..plans to focus first on corneal implants, Krstich said. Last year the company published a scientific journal article showing that it can create corneas from embryonic-like stem cells it created from a process known as parthenogenesis, which involves using an unfertilized egg rather than an embryo.”

I am not sure if they are doing any of this work in Maryland or not, but I would suspect any funding of the Parent company would be beneficial to the Walkersville site. Lets hope they get some money from California and use it to grow their operations in Walkersville!

More State Money for Maryland Biotechs?

According to a report from Comptroller Peter Franchot, and as reported in the GenomeWeb Daily News sister publication BioRegion News:

Concluding that Maryland must step up government support for the life sciences, state Comptroller Peter Franchot has vowed to pursue in the new year a multi-year package of subsidies and other programs expected to catapult the industry into the nation’s top tier of bioclusters.

Sounds like the wheels are churning in Annapolis to continue building momentum with the growth in the Biotechnology sector in the state. The conclusion in a report entitled the “Bioscience Summit“, which I reported in a previous post, prepared by the Sage policy group is that:

“Maryland’s bioscience sector is among the nation’s largest, if not the largest, generating
$29 billion in annual economic output, $11 billion in income and nearly $600 million in
State government taxes. The average job supported directly by the state’s life sciences
industry pays $108,000/annum. Almost one-fifth of bioscience workers hold doctorates
and over half have graduates degrees.”

and continues…

“Over the next decade, Maryland’s biotech sector is poised to become even more globally
pre-eminent. The development of two biotechnology parks in Baltimore City in
conjunction with the massive and expanding life sciences cluster in Maryland’s D.C.
Suburbs may be enough to push Maryland past Massachusetts and California assuming
that Maryland isn’t already number one. Indeed, given its vast institutional presence
(e.g., NIH, FDA, JHU, NIST, Fort Detrick, UMB, UMBI), Maryland may already be
number one in terms of the size of its broadly defined bioscience sector. One would have
to study only California and Massachusetts to confirm this.”

Interestingly, the report also attempts to define what a Biotech company or institution is. From the report:

MdBio, a private non-profit corporation that seeks to advance Maryland’s bioscience
industry takes a more expansive view.4 In its recent report regarding Maryland’s life
sciences industry, MdBio defines bioscience organizations as those involved in the
research, development, or manufacture of:
1. biologically active molecules;
2. devices that employ or affect biological processes;
3. biological information resources; or
4. software designed specifically for biological applications.

This definition clearly supports my bias that Beer qualifies as both a biologically active substance that clearly affects biological processes and should also be considered within the Biotech sector!!