Investors, scientists get venue to meet in Arizona in October

The International Genomics Consortium is assembling a constellation of internationally known scientists for a first-ever conference to bring together the researchers with smart-money investors.

Jodie Snyder
The Arizona Republic

The Biofunding Summit 2003, scheduled for October in Phoenix, is expected to attract 450 people.

As its centerpiece, it will feature some of the scientists who could cure cancer. Some of those expected to attend include:

• Dr. Stanley Cohen, a Nobel Prize winner whose work showed how a cell’s growth and differentiation are regulated.

• Bruce Ames, who developed a world-renowned test to discover whether a substance will cause a cancer-causing genetic mutation.

• William Haseltine, who is expected to be biotech’s first billionaire. Haseltine’s company, Human Genome Sciences, is a front-runner biotech company, and he was one of the first to look at using the body’s genes as natural medicines.

• Kate Horwitz, who developed the drug Tamoxifen, which is prescribed to prevent reoccurrence of breast cancer.

The conference is more than a scientific summit, organizers say. It will introduce those researchers, as well as top-drawer Arizona scientists, to venture capitalists who can finance their projects.

"The only way to keep potential biotech companies here is to have capital here," said Richard Mallery, chairman of the consortium board.

"We hope this will become the pre-eminent annual meeting for scientists and venture capitalists."

The conference also will help cement a relationship between the consortium and the National Foundation for Cancer Research, which recently gave a $1 million grant to the University of Arizona’s Cancer Research Center.

"We see very exciting things happening in Arizona and we want to be a part of that," said Franklin Salisbury Jr., president of the foundation, which has funded more than $180 million in research in its 30-year history.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0330igc30.html

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Arizona mapping biotech’s future

Jodie Snyder
The Arizona Republic

Working the room at a recent Virginia bioscience conference, Maria Laughner, Arizona Department of Commerce’s biotech specialist, was tapped on the shoulder and asked point-blank the Big Question.

"Now that you’ve got TGen, what are you going to do about it?"

It’s not only the big question, it is the $120 million question. Last year, the state’s leaders shook philanthropic and government coffers for the funds to persuade the leaders of the Translational Genomics Research Institute to build in downtown Phoenix. Promoters may not have understood the project’s science, but to them the payoff was clear: Landing TGen would immediately put Arizona on the international biotech scene and provide a big economic boost to the region.

The big payoff is decades away, but by 2012 there could be as many as 120 new biotech firms operating in the state, employing 12,900 workers. And TGen is seen as a major trigger for this explosion in growth.

The early signs are good. In eight months, TGen has turned a blank slate and a large to-do list into tangible progress: Bringing in high-caliber researchers and planning a $30 million laboratory with Phoenix that will help transfer discoveries made from the Human Genome Project into medical treatments.

Now, the rest of the state must keep pace with the prize that Phoenix has landed.

The immediate goal, say leaders who brought TGen to town, is to bring researchers, physicians and business people together to make Arizona a leading southwestern state in the biotech field.

Competing at the same level as California and Massachusetts is decades away.

Specifically, the target is to increase National Institutes of Health funding in Arizona to $214 million from $118 million by 2007, which would boost Arizona from 27th in the country to the top 10.

TGen itself will provide $30 million to $40 million of that extra $100 million, said Richard Love, TGen’s chief operating officer.

"But we can’t do it alone," he said.

However, TGen is an extremely effective catalyst, said Joseph Cortright, a Portland, Ore.-based biotech consultant. Cortright’s report for the Brookings Institution set off a stir in the industry last year when he said too many cities were chasing after mirages of biotech economic bonanzas. By Cortright’s calculations, Phoenix was in the bottom tier in the industry’s sector.

But TGen’s arrival can lift it out of the cellar, provided the state improves its research and makes it easier for laboratory discoveries to be commercialized, Cortright said.

Cortright’s assessment dovetails the findings of a $400,000 study commissioned by the Flinn Foundation, a major backer of bringing TGen to Arizona.

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Keys to success

For biotech to succeed, the state needs to take several actions this year, in 2003, including:

Form the Arizona Biosciences Research Alliance to take a lead role in developing biotech.

Get political support to raise money for facilities and recruitment packages for key areas of science.

Money may come from bonds.

Inform Arizona congressional delegation about coming scientific projects.

Make it easier for state universities to have equity in commercial projects developed on campus.

Develop prospectus for entrepreneurial assistance center.

Secure commitments for up to $70.million for Arizona BioSeed Fund.

Develop stronger regional bioscience councils to improve networking.

Use state regional promotion and marketing funds to develop Arizona’s ìbrand nameî in biosciences.

Source: Battelle Memorial Institute’s Platform for Progress, Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap.

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The report, done by Battelle Memorial Institute, one of the country’s most prominent biotech consultants, is a "road map" to how Arizona can meet its goals. It lays out specific timetables and identifies who should be responsible for meeting interim goals.

"TGen was a good start, but it is critical to build on its momentum," said Walter Plosila, Battelle’s vice president for public technology management.

So far, TGen’s accomplishments have included hiring scientists who are meeting with Arizona researchers and physicians to work on joint programs. It also has a preliminary 13,000-square-foot lab running in space donated by Banner Health System.

This month, the group made headlines by adding Curt Schilling to its board, and it also has worked behind the scenes to get more national bioterrorism funding for Arizona.

Bigger headlines are ahead: TGen is working on an agreement with IBM Life- sciences and Arizona State University to develop computing lines to help decipher DNA. The computer center being discussed would be among the 20 most powerful computer centers in the world.

Sense of urgency

The word from Jeffrey Trent, TGen’s president and scientific director, is "urgency," said Jose Cardenas, TGen’s chairman of the board.

"It’s really very motivational, the sense of what can be accomplished in a short time," Cardenas said.

State economic-development leaders say they are working with urgency as well to capitalize on TGen, but they also must be methodical. Their plans, from political to academic to economic development, should start bearing fruit in the fall:

• Tech transfer: Everyone agrees that for Arizona to compete, it must allow its state universities to help researchers commercialize their products. A bill expected to pass the state Legislature would allow universities to receive stock, or equity, and become shareholders in a company started by academic researchers. If approved by the Legislature, the measure would go to the state’s voters in 2004.

As ahead start, Arizona State University has hired a former pharmaceutical company executive to head its tech-transfer office. Peter Slate, former director of Baxter International’s global technology outlicensing, will start Tuesday as head of the Arizona Technology Enterprises, being developed by the ASU Foundation.

• Attracting new companies: Trying to capitalize on the splash made by TGen, the state Department of Commerce is working with 45 biotech companies that are interested in moving to Arizona, almost double the number it worked with for all of 2002.

Interest has been global. German magazines have profiled TGen, and a British publication has interviewed Gov. Janet Napolitano on the state’s biotech plans.

Economic development leaders are also hosting Arizona BioExpo in April. About 450 people are expected to attend the first-ever event, which is being billed as the largest biotech conference in the Southwest.

In addition to attracting new companies, the state must nurture existing companies, which could account for as much as 80 percent of biotech’s job growth, Plosila said.

Still, Arizona could attract other companies like it did with high-tech giants such as Intel and Honeywell.

"You have a history of building by attraction," Plosila said.

• More lab space: Less than a month ago, ASU broke ground on a $69 million Arizona Biodesign Institute. Its first phase is a 170,000-square-foot facility to house research in biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology. The goal is to provide lab space to retain and attract top researchers.

University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University are involved in similar efforts.

• More research: University leaders also are looking at how to emphasize other research areas that could work in tandem with genomics. The idea is to take advantage of advancements made by neurosurgeons at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Tempe bioengineers who help stroke victims walk and researchers at the nationally known UA Cancer Center.

Other possible areas are infectious diseases, agriculture and such chronic conditions as asthma and diabetes.

Central place

The goal isn’t to create "mini-TGens," but instead to have a central place that helps bring researchers from around the state together to go after federal grants. The group also would sort out ideas and coordinate personnel, facilities and equipment.

"We have very good people, but we don’t have a vehicle for them," said Dr. Raymond Woosley, UA vice president for health sciences. Woosley would head the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative.

This month, the Arizona Board of Regents will vote on the collaborative and if approved, there should be a plan ready by October.

"We are in a bit of a transition phase," Woosley said. "We’ve got the road map, but we don’t have the car yet."

Reaching out

Landing TGen required a nucleus of civic leaders who broke bureaucratic speed limits to get the effort funded. But their speed caused some academics and businesspeople to feel left out. Many questioned the strategy of investing so much of the state’s economic development efforts in an industry where companies burn through cash and their payoffs could be decades away.

Any hard feelings caused by this single-mindedness are now being addressed in coalition-building efforts.

The Flinn Foundation has been holding task force meetings to look at three key areas of venture capital, facilities and entrepreneurial assistance. The foundation also wants more biotech businesspeople to join its steering committee.

"We are going to err on the side of inclusiveness," said Saundra Johnson, who is coordinating Flinn’s biotech efforts.

That extends to creating an Arizona Biomedical Research Alliance, a group to take the lead in making sure the road map is followed.

Battelle suggested that the alliance be one of the state’s first steps.

Flinn chose instead to reach out to people and then create the alliance.

"They have decided to go from the bottom up to the top rather than the other way around," Plosila said.

To operate the alliance, it would take up to $500,000 annually.

Overall, to follow Battelle’s five most immediate suggestions for biotech’s first year, it would take $14 million.

With Proposition 301’s education sales tax earmarked for this type of research, Arizona should have the money to make this work, Plosila said.

"We are in good shape if the money is left intact by the state Legislature," Johnson said.

Plosila thinks the money earmarked for biotech has helped Arizona act quickly. "The state is moving out of the chute a lot faster because they have money on the table," he said.

Next steps

A road map, a sense of urgency, money – what more does the state need to create biotech?

Time, Plosila said. "This is going to take more than a year or two, it will take a decade."

But will it work?

Laughner, the state’s biotech specialist, gave the rundown on the state’s plan, including the Battelle road map, to the skeptic she encountered in Virginia.

"When I told him what we were doing, he said, ‘That’s a good start.’ "

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0330biotech30.html