Healthy Prospects Ahead – The life sciences industry continues to revolutionize the country’s economic development climate. Find out what some locations are doing to support the skyrocketing industry.

Last year, Florida’s Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature recognized the need to grow its life sciences sector. Florida — just like the other 49 states, not to mention worldwide locales — recognizes the stability and profitability of the sector, primarily defined here as companies involved in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Worldwide, the life sciences industry is a $800 billion industry, and it continues to boom. It’s no wonder states are creating funding mechanisms to entice companies to locate. Companies can take heart that similar efforts will most likely continue to occur nationwide as the industry continues on its projected growth rate.

By Rachel Duran

http://bxjonline.com/bxj/article.asp?magarticle_id=677

Florida came through with a $310 million state incentive package and an approximately $200 million Palm Beach County incentive package, which was enough to convince Scripps Research Institute to establish an East Coast facility in the state.

The institute’s main facility is located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, which employs 3,000 people. Scripps Florida will emphasize drug discovery, the development of biomedical scientific equipment technology, primarily robotics and informatics, as well as conduct basic biomedical research.

Florida’s efforts are just a glimpse into what life sciences companies can expect to find as they look to site new facilities. Across the country this year, state legislatures were busy passing initiatives to enhance their state’s life sciences climates.

For example, in April, Kansas passed the Kansas Economic Growth Act, which features $500 million in research and investment capital to be distributed to boost the biotechnology industry in the state during the next 10 years.

In March, Pennsylvania finalized the pieces of its $2 billion economic development incentive package, including the New PA Venture Guarantee Program, which allows the state to partner with the investment community to guarantee venture capital companies. The New PA Venture Capital Investment Program will provide capital to Pennsylvania-focused venture capital companies that agree to match those funds and make investments in Pennsylvania businesses. Both initiatives will fuel the life sciences efforts in the state.

In March, South Carolina passed a life sciences initiative that provides tax incentives to pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing and research and development companies. The state’s venture capital legislation increases the availability of seed capital for emerging businesses.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise officials say that New York state is restructuring its incentive programs to encourage investment along lines where there is an affinity to the science that exists in the state.

At press time, for instance, there were several new programs centered around venture capital funding where the state would set up funds to incentivize other venture capital funds to invest in either those funds or companies in the state, says Dave Tyler of BuffLink, whose responsibilities include business development services. “That is a huge issues, especially on the biotech side of the life sciences industry, in terms of identifying sources of early-stage investment,” he says.

The state is also considering a program that would provide zero-interest financing for the construction of new life sciences facilities.

The Anatomy of a Life Sciences Deal

What was it about Florida for the Scripps Research Institute? Why not Boston, for instance, for its East Coast location? During a period of many years, the institute had been wooed by various United States and overseas locations to join established institutions in building a campus. But the offers never fit the institute’s requirements. Then Florida came calling.

While the Florida incentive package was a definite plus, the Palm Beach County site offered Scripps 100 acres for development, and funds to cover the start-up phase and construction of its 360,000-square-foot facility. Phase I will consist of 160,000 square feet for lab space and 44,000 square feet for administrative space, which is scheduled for completion by the end of 2006.

The institute anticipates hiring 545 employees by the seventh year. “The institute has announced plans to increase physical facilities to 1 million square feet and employment to 2,700 workers during a 15-year period,” says Larry Pelton, president, Business Development Board of Palm Beach County.

The Scripps Florida project will anchor two 2,000-acre parcels, which are adjacent to each other. One parcel is for residential, elementary and middle schools, a town center, recreational and preservation set-asides. The other parcel will be home to Scripps Florida, a multi-university campus, a high school and some residential property.

“We can design the cluster the ways Scripps likes to have it, rather than a situation that may be land-locked,” Pelton says. “Having a raw site gives it the opportunity to design where ancillary activity will occur and will help define what it will be.”

Palm Beach County also offers Scripps not only a desirable location in terms of quality of life in order to attract leading scientists, but it also is the country’s leading philanthropic location.

“There is quite a bit of wealth in South Florida,” Pelton says. “Scripps is largely dependent on foundation support, and there are quite a bit of foundations and individuals who are inclined to make contributions and approve grants to the research field.”

The Role of the Research Base

While quality of life and space availability are important components of a life sciences search, the quality of the research base is paramount.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise officials are working with a company that is looking to site a major R&D operation. “It has zeroed in on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, which is a campus where investment in new facilities is occurring,” Tyler says. “The company wants to work side-by-side with researchers, sharing equipment and have access to all the research capacity.”

Tyler notes that because the Buffalo-Niagara market is smaller, access to its research institutions is easier. Jerry Murphy, executive vice president, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, says the area, for some specific ranges of drug discovery, allows a company to take the life cycle of a drug introduction from the bioinformatics side to clinical trails.

“In medical devices, the workforce is skilled and highly specialized,” Tyler says. “There is expertise around the clinical trials and regulatory issues.” In terms of drug discovery and cancer therapies, the Buffalo-Niagara area features the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the State University of New York at Buffalo, where there is specialized research occurring around therapies and diagnostics. The area also has strengths in neurology, particularly around imaging, because of the computing capacity and other research taking place. In bioinformatics, the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute researches and develops the structures of new drugs, among other projects.

Research strengths in central Indiana include Indiana University and Purdue University, both of which have strong departments in analytical chemistry. The Indiana University School of Medicine is the second-largest medical school in the country. The Rose- Hulman Institute of Technology is a highly regarded engineering school.

“We have some outstanding life sciences companies headquartered here, but not a lot of smaller companies,” says Chuck Schalliol, president and CEO, BioCrossroads, which is a life sciences network. He notes that Eli Lilly and Company, Roche Diagnostics, Dow AgroSciences, Guidant Corporation and Cook Group Inc. are large and noncompetitive companies located in the region. “One is pharma, one is diagnostic, one is ag-related and a couple of them are medical-device companies,” he says. “These companies draw talent from around the world and the state wants to build on that talent.”

The life sciences research base in Arkansas is led by ag-related biotech. It is highlighted by the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center, the USDA’s National Aquaculture Research Center and the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research. “The FDA facility conducts fundamental and applied research and determines the safety and risk of FDA-regulated products,” says Jan Partain, spokesperson, Arkansas Department of Economic Development.

Funding is under way for the creation of the Arkansas Medical Center for Economic Development, which will feature a regional effort by Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. The effort will conduct research in the uses of rice, Partain says.

In Horry County, S.C., life sciences research is centered around the nutraceuticals industry that the area’s crops bring, says Chris Hines, manager of business development, Partners Economic Development Corporation. He says the county has a history in agriculture and features a temperate climate that allows for a longer growing season.

“The industry is supported by Coastal Carolina University, which provides research and technology transfer opportunities,” Hines says. “Horry-Georgetown Technical College offers excellent workforce training.”

Hines notes that Coastal Carolina University and his organization recently sponsored the Research, Agriculture, Industry and Nature Conference to discuss the opportunities available in nutraceuticals and ag-based industries.

Collaborating to Survive

In Florida, Scripps will partner with the University of Florida. “Science is so complicated that institutions look to collaborate with other institutions so we will partner with the University of Florida,” says Keith McKeown, spokesperson, Scripps Research Institute. “With the Internet, it is much easier to collaborate because you can easily exchange your research findings.”

Indiana is creating a life sciences environment for similar companies to collaborate. The Indiana Protein Analysis Center is a collaboration of Eli Lilly, the Indiana University School of Medicine, Purdue University and the city of Indianapolis. “Lilly is the first customer in the protein center, but is doesn’t need all of the capacity and capabilities of the center,” Schalliol says. “That is why they are looking for others to sell these services to.”

The Indiana Health Information Exchange was recently formed. Its members include all the hospital networks in central Indiana and a foundation of the Indiana University School of Medicine.

The Buffalo-Niagara area is pitching its proximity to Canada as a way for companies to tap into a larger scale of collaboration possibilities. “We have defined ourselves, particularly on an international scale, as having science potential that stretches from Cornell to Toronto,” Murphy says. “The logic is that academics across that swath of the region go across the border easily.”

Murphy notes that if researchers in southern Ontario are conducting a joint venture in research they don’t regard the border as an obstacle. “They think of themselves as a much bigger cluster,” he says.

In another East Coast location, the presence of the research divisions of a number of leading life sciences companies, including Novartis, Aventis, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Wyeth and the soon-to-be-established Merck facility in Boston, offers the right climate for Visualize, Inc.

The Phoenix-based software company is a leading provider of data visualization products and solutions for the life sciences industry and the financial services industry. “That commercial activity, combined with the research institutions located here such as the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, MIT and Harvard Medical School, among others, was key to our expansion to Boston,” says Raveen Sharma, vice president of strategic marketing and business development, Visualize, Inc.

Talent Pool

Sharma adds that the software talent and life sciences was a major draw to Boston.

Recently, Virginia-based Luna Innovations decided to locate its new $6.4 million facility in Danville, Va. Among its innovations, Luna Innovations has developed cutting-edge products that improve the diagnostics and treatment of disease. The company’s products are centered on breakthroughs in nanomaterials technology.

It is clear from these companies’ experiences that a skilled base of workers is essential to life sciences companies.

Indiana is the top producer of life sciences graduates in the Midwest, with 11,000 students graduating with life-sciences-related degrees each year.

“One interesting situation at Lilly, the company I worked for before coming to BioCrossroads, was that we had a difficult time finding enough trained lab technicians,” Schalliol says. “We could hire more people in that area, for example. The core reason for BioCrossroads’ existence is to grow our own companies and jobs.”

The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area features several Noble Laureates working at its universities, which includes four at the University of Texas-Southwestern and two at the University of Texas-Dallas, says Meredith Dowling, director of technology and business development for the Greater Dallas Chamber. She oversees the newly formed DFW Life Sciences Partnership. The partnership is a joint effort of the Greater Dallas Chamber, the Fort Worth Chamber, the Health Industry Council and the North Texas Commission.

Dowling notes that the area features a solid infrastructure for high-level or CEO-level management for the biotech industry. She says the telecom sector’s downturn in the area has created a pool of people looking for a different industry. “We are conducting research to determine what skills are transferable and how they would be interchangeable,” she says.

In New Jersey, the state features more scientists per capita than any other location in the world, says Tim Lizura director of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s Real Estate Division. This includes 80,000 life sciences employees, including 22,000 doctorate-level employees. New Jersey’s strong employee base supports the large base of private R&D spent in the state, which accounts for 24 percent of the country’s total.

Housing the Burgeoning Life Sciences Industry

As the life sciences industry continues to churn out technologies and innovations, locations across the country are maintaining or establishing facilities to house these companies.

In April, Scripps Research Institute moved into 10,000 square feet of space at the Florida Atlantic University-Boca Raton campus. Also in April, Florida Atlantic University’s Jupiter campus broke ground on a 40,000-square-foot lab building, which Scripps will occupy for two years while its permanent Florida facility is under construction. The building will revert back to the Jupiter campus for use as a lab building.

Palm Beach County’s Pelton says the county wants to create a science village, which would be anchored by Scripps, with multi-disciplines of science. “We are putting together a strategy to incubate startups that result from the various scientific research efforts,” he says. “And that means putting together a network of capital resources, and perhaps constructing an incubator wet lab space.”

In central Indiana the Purdue Research Park is the nation’s largest university-affiliated business incubator, which has plans to expand. It is a model for other universities across the country.

The Indiana University Emerging Technologies Center, which opened last May, is nearing capacity. It is exploring adding a graduation facility for firms that need more space to grow. The Rose-Hulman Ventures in Terre Haute also features incubator space.

In New Jersey, Lizura’s organization will add 25,000 square feet to the 20,000-square-foot Commercialization Center, which is located at the Technology Centre of New Jersey in North Brunswick.

The Technology Centre of New Jersey has also signed a letter of intent with Rutgers University to build 27,000 square feet to house the university’s portfolio of technology transfer companies.

In Newark, the Public Health Research Institute’s designation as a regional biocontaminant facility calls for an expansion of a facility built for the International Center for Public Health. The institute received $20 million from NIH and $10 million from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to expand the facility.

Arkansas’ Partain says the Bioventures incubator in Little Rock opened its new 16,500-square-foot facility, which is FDA-certified, for use in the manufacture of therapeutics for use in humans. She says the Arkansas Medical Center for Economic Development will be built at the Bioventures incubator. (The incubator is building skyward with its new additions.)

In Buffalo, Murphy says the area will have made significant public investments in a short period of time in facilities and computing capacities that then set up the uniqueness of the area oriented to drug discovery, particularly around diseases initiatives. “A quarter of a million dollar investment will afford a significant expansion of both the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute,” Murphy says.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the University of North Texas recently completed a six-story building dedicated to biotechnology and lab space. Research Row’s Biolabs, near the University of Texas-Southwestern, leases space to life sciences companies, which features wet lab space.

Funds, Funds and More Funds

As evidenced by the legislative activity across the country in recent years, states are bank-rolling the life sciences industry wherever they can in order to carry them into the future in terms of investment and job creation.

The Indiana Future Fund is a $73.4 million fund that Schalliol says is primarily intended to fund businesses involved in life sciences in the state. The initial funded groups were to be a mix of national and local venture funds, expected to be announced at the end of April.

Schalliol says that BioCrossroads will be also be looking for ways to provide seed funding to startup companies in the state.

In New Jersey, the Business Employment Incentive Program has lowered its job thresholds so that eligible life sciences companies that hire new workers could rebate a portion of their employee withholding taxes, ranging from 10 percent to 80 percent, for up to 10 years.

“New Jersey is also putting the final touches on the Innovation Opportunity Zones, which are in Newark and North and New Brunswick centered around Rutgers University, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and the New Jersey Institute of Technology,” Lizura says.

He says the zones are pending final approval but would operate much like the state’s Urban Enterprise Zones where companies would get additional financial benefits by locating in the zones.

New Jersey is also making a $10 million investment into an expected $40 million life sciences venture fund, which is part of a new initiative package recently announced. A couple of years ago the state committed $10 million to the New Jersey Technology Council to fund high-tech companies, including life sciences. The Springboard program was also renewed, which makes investments into early-stage life sciences companies. The Capital Program offers high-tech companies loans of up to $500,000 for working capital and fixed equipment.

New Jersey also features the Net Operating Loss Transfer Program, which allows high- tech companies to sell their R&D tax credits and their net operating losses for their tax cash equivalent, Lizura says. New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey is recommending the $40 million per year program be extended to $60 million as part of the Innovation Opportunity Zones proposal.

In 2003, the Arkansas General Assembly passed the Consolidated Incentive Act, which created provisions to support the life sciences industry. Targeted life sciences businesses have to meet a series of qualifications to earn an income tax credit equal to 10 percent of its annual payroll, with a maximum credit not to exceed $100,000 in any year of the financial incentive agreement. Credits may be sold and the buyer can carry the credit forward for up to three years. Companies also receive a refund for taxable materials, machinery and equipment purchases. The incentive can also be combined with a 33 percent research and development income tax credit that may also be sold within one year of issuance. There are also incentives for nontargeted life sciences companies.

In 2001, Arkansas also created a venture capital fund of funds to support the life sciences industry.

Dallas-Fort Worth’s Dowling says the area was scheduled to hold an SBIR funding conference in May to boost its share of applications and funding awards. “We are taking a full day to guide life sciences and technologies, allowing them to meet program managers that oversee the funding,” she says.

Dowling says the DFW Life Sciences Partnership was not formed to create another membership organization but to foster the growth of the life sciences’ market. This includes making companies aware of funding that exists and looking for alternative ways to find funding so they are not limited by venture capital funds.

Limitations to growing a life sciences operation are becoming fewer as states continue to enhance existing incentive programs and roll out life-sciences-industry specific incentives to propel the industry forward. While projects the size of Scripps Research Institute’s Florida facility are few, startup and existing companies will no doubt find their perfect mix of research, collaborations, workforce, space to incubate and grow, and funding to support their growth plans.

Look for communities that are monetizing their claims as ideal life sciences destinations. See who breathing new life into their life sciences sector.

For complete details on the companies and organizations featured in this article visit:

Arkansas Department of Economic Development, http://www.1800arkansas.com

BioCrossroads, http://www.BioCrossroads.com

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, http://www.buffaloniagara.org

BuffLink, http://www.bufflink.org

City of Danville (Va.) Office of Economic Development, http://www.discoverdanville.com

Dallas-Fort Worth Life Sciences Partnership, http://www.dfwlifesciences.org

New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s Real Estate Division, http://www.njeda.com

Business Development Board of Palm Beach County (Fla.), http://www.bdo.org

Partners (Horry County, S.C.) Economic Development Corporation, http://www.myrtlebeachdevelopment.com

Scripps Research Institute, http://www.scripps.edu

Visualize, Inc., http://www.visualize.com

Top States for Biomed/Pharmaceutical

Based on number of establishments

New Branches

1. California

2. New Jersey

3. Texas (tie)

3. Florida (tie)

5. North Carolina (tie)

5. Massachusetts (tie)

7. Illinois

8. Pennsylvania (tie)

8. Oregon (tie)

10. Maryland

Startups

1. California

2. Massachusetts

3. Texas

4. Florida

5. New Jersey

6. Maryland

7. Pennsylvania

8. New York

9. North Carolina

10. Illinois (tie)

10. Washington (tie)

Data include the following SICs:

2834 Pharmaceutical preparations

2835 Diagnostic substances

2836 Biological products, except diagnostic

3559-9922 Pharmaceutical machinery

8071-0102 Biological laboratory

8731-01 Biological research

8733-01 Noncommercial biological research

Source: Since 1990, BizMiner has built its reputation on quality research in the fields of economic and business development. The company tracks more than 11 million U.S. businesses annually, developing vitality benchmarks for more than 18,000 lines of business and every U.S. county, MSA and state.

Measures include business retention, entrepreneurial activity, new branch attraction, business relocation trends and concentrations of high-growth firms.

Visit http://www.bizminer.com for access to more than 1 million local and national marketing research and financial analysis reports.

Unique Site Selection Process Brought Scripps to Florida

After being approached numerous times during the years about establishing another Scripps Research Institute campus in United States and overseas, Scripps politely declined as the projects were never quite right.

Then came a call from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush about discussing the possibility of opening a facility in Florida. In a series of discussions with institute officials, the governor outlined that he had $1 billion in federal economic development funding. His vision was to introduce the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries to the state, as they weren’t well developed. The governor was looking to use some of the funds for a large investment, or several large investments, to diversify the state’s economy, which features many tourism and service-related jobs.

“Gov. Bush proposed to the Florida Legislature a $310 million package from that fund to cover startup costs for a Scripps facility in the state and to buy scientific research equipment,” says Keith McKeown, spokesman, Scripps Research Institute.

Scripps will have to meet benchmarks and request the funds on a yearly basis for a period of seven years. The institute will also have to create a graduate program offering Ph.D. degrees, conduct educational and outreach programs and seminars, contribute to the state’s health and science fund, and pay back royalties.

Counties in Florida were invited to come forward with proposals to site the facility, of which Palm Beach County had the most appropriate and appealing proposal of 100 acres and approximately $200 million to cover construction costs.

Why Florida?

What did Florida have that set it apart from numerous other suitors for a new Scripps facility? McKeown says that the Scripps site in La Jolla, a neighborhood in San Diego, is extremely tight with 3,000 employees, and while it can expand, it can’t by much.

“We are always interested in conducting new science, and we have been thinking about what we wanted to do to expand,” McKeown says.

The100-acre Scripps site in Palm Beach County is surrounded by 1,900 additional acres that the county hopes to turn into a science park, among other uses, anchored by Scripps’ presence. There is also a 2,000-acre site located adjacent to the site.

Scripps was also interested in the East Coast address in the recruiting process as many of its scientists are based on the East Coast or in Europe. “At the same time, when recruiting world-class scientists, you have to have an attractive quality of life,” McKeown says. “Obviously Palm Beach County is a very attractive place to live, work and raise a family.”

Additionally, Scripps believes that an East Coast location will make it a well-known national organization. “Right now we are well-known internationally and locally, but not nationally,” McKeown says.

Palm Beach County is also considered the philanthropic capital of the United States, which opens up a new philanthropic market to Scripps.

Of course, the incentive package was also helpful.

“All those factors came together to create a win-win situation for Florida and Scripps,” McKeown says.

For complete details on the Scripps Research Institute visit http://www.scripps.edu.

Regional Life Science Initiatives Enhance Life Sciences

Two regional life sciences organizations have recently formed to enhance the positioning of their respective business climates.

Actually, the organizations, the Dallas-Fort Worth Life Sciences Partnership and Indiana’s BioCrossroads, formed as the results of initiatives from existing organizations. The DFW Life Sciences Partnership is the result of four organizations coming together to foster the growth of the region’s life sciences market. The Greater Dallas Chamber is spearheading the effort along with the Fort Worth Chamber, the Health Industry Council and the North Texas Commission.

BioCrossroads, central Indiana’s life science consortium, is a public-private collaboration that supports the region’s research and corporate strengths while encouraging new business development.

These organizations will promote their regions as global competitors for the life sciences industry. “The region’s life sciences market features many facets and the two cities created this alliance of industry, government and education to promote the life science industry and demonstrate we are a global competitor,” says Meredith Dowling, director or technology business development, Greater Dallas Chamber.

The partnership will tout its biotechnology industry, especially in medically related areas such as pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical devices.

“In central Indiana we have large life sciences companies headquartered here, but not a lot of smaller companies,” says Chuck Schalliol, president and CEO, BioCrossroads. He came on board in April from Eli Lilly.

“Eli Lilly and Company, Roche Diagnostics, Dow AgroSciences, Guidant Corporation and Cook Group Inc. are headquartered here and they are noncompetitive,” Schalliol says. “That allows them to recruit on a global scale and bring talent to the this region. We want to build on that.”

Schalliol says that BioCrossroads hopes through its activities to create and cause a lot of business formations and startups.

To learn more about the regional life sciences efforts underway in Dallas-Fort Worth and central Indiana visit http://www.dfwlifesciences.org and http://www.BioCrossroads.com.

The Netherlands is Tops in Europe

The Netherlands was recently ranked best-in-class among European counties that host biotechnology, pharmaceutical R&D and medical device manufacturing operations. The ranking was awarded by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in its “EU Enlargement: Driving Change in the European Life Sciences Industry.”

The Netherlands is home to approximately 400 life sciences companies and is a leading center for research involving agri-foods, biologicals, blood transfusion technology, among others. Almost one-quarter of Dutch research schools are primarily devoted to biotech. The Netherlands is also the only country in Europe to offer laboratory training in dedicated higher vocational laboratory schools.

The Cap Gemini Ernst & Young study compared the ability of current and future EU members to attract life sciences industry investments while examining the effects of EU expansion on industry relocation decisions. The study found major changes lie ahead for the life sciences network in the EU, including a shift from integrated life sciences companies to a life sciences network chain, where each part of the chain could be a separate business entity. Also confirmed by the study is the consolidation of distribution and sales and marketing activities across pharmaceutical companies, which would lead to the emergence of corporate entities focused in these areas.

To learn more about why the Netherlands was ranked best-in-class visit the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency at http://www.nfia.com.

Wales’ Life Sciences Industry Blossoms

Wales has seen quite a bit of life sciences industry activity in recent years, highlighted by GE’s Healthcare unit purchase of Amersham of Wales for $9.5 billion at the end of 2003.

Amersham has been the world leader in diagnostic imagining and life sciences equipment. The GE Healthcare unit wants to enhance medical research to spot killer diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s earlier. It will also create drugs, procedures and equipment that will make it easier to tailor treatment to individual circumstances.

In other life sciences activity, Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine received $15 million in grants to purchase new equipment for a new center to study brain diseases and the workings of the brain. The Cardiff University Brain and Repair Imaging Centre will be the first in the United Kingdom to combine noninvasive brain imaging equipment solely for research. The UK Department of Trade and Industry contributed $14.38 million to the project, with additional funds coming from the , universities.

Additionally, the Medi-Science campus of four bu, ildings for the medical and bioscience sector has been completed near Llan-trisant.

The biosciences sector in Wales comprises 230 companies, which employ 10,000 people, 2,400 of which are engaged in research and development activity.
For complete details on Wales’ life sciences industry visit the Welsh Development Agency at http://www.wda.co.uk.