In Governor McDonnell’s first “State of the Commonwealth” speech on January 18th, he spoke about the importance of investment in biotechnology. He noted that the biotech industry offers “high paying jobs and fast-growing career fields” and that “smart states look at this sector for future economic development.” Check out this video clip from the speech:

Reposted from BIOtech NOW:

Last summer, BIO joined with former Vermont Governor Howard Dean to advocate for biosimilar legislation that protects patient safety and promotes necessary incentives for continued innovation of biologics. The Governor, a trained physician, is a passionate supporter of the value of biotech products in treating disease and reducing healthcare costs.

To further familiarize him with the diversity of our member companies, I accompanied Governor Dean for a two-day tour of California biotech companies earlier this week.

We began our excursion Tuesday morning in the San Diego biotech hub accompanied by BIOCOM President & CEO Joe Panetta with a visit to Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla. The Institute is among the top four recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and for the past decade has been ranked #1 for the impact of its research publications according to the Institute of Scientific Information. Dean was particularly impressed by the Institute’s high throughput screening robot and by the way patent royalty payments are plowed back into further research.

Next, we visited Conatus Pharmaceuticals where CEO Steve Mento, Ph.D., explained how a small virtual biotech company that has taken a drug “off the shelf” from another company is developing a novel clinical stage drug candidate for liver disease. The company employs just fourteen full-time staff and contracts out and collaborates with more than a hundred partners worldwide.

At Ceregene, President & CEO Jeff Ostrove, Ph.D., described the company’s work on delivering nervous system growth factors to treat Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and ALS. Jeff also explained how the restrictions on SBIR grants to majority VC backed companies as well as the on-going credit crunch had hampered emerging biotech companies. He emphasized the huge potential value of BIO’s effort to include a therapeutic discovery tax credit in health care reform legislation.

Our tour then took us to Phenomix where CEO Laura Shawver, Ph.D., reviewed the company’s work on an oral once-daily treatment for Type II diabetes and its protease inhibitor to treat HCV infection.

Next we travelled to Life Technologies where Chairman & CEO Greg Lucier led us on a tour of the multinational biotech tools company that supplies more than 50,000 products to 75,000 customers around the globe. We watched the manufacturing of protein gels and learned of Life Technologies’ expansion beyond the health market into biofuels.

The day ended with a lively dinner discussion with area CEOs, Governor Dean, Joe Panetta and California Healthcare Institute (CHI) President & CEO David Gollaher, Ph.D.

On Wednesday morning we left San Diego at 5:00 AM and flew to San Francisco for a tour of the Bay Area biotech hub.

We began the day at Geron Corporation where President and CEO Tom Okarma, Ph.D., M.D., gave his usual passionate and brilliant exposition of the company’s pioneering work on embryonic stem cell research including its first-in-the-world FDA-approved hESC-based therapy clinical study which will treat acute spinal cord injury. Tom also explained Geron’s work on telomerase inhibitor drugs attacking cancer stem cells. In the lab, we observed live differentiated cell types, including beating heart cells derived from embryonic stem cells.

At OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, President and CEO Paul Hastings led us on a tour of the company’s labs and walked us through a discussion of OncoMed’s anti-cancer stem cell antibody program aimed at attacking solid tumors.

Affymax President & CEO Arlene Morris and her leadership staff described for Governor Dean the company’s breakthrough development of Hematide now in Phase 3 trials for the treatment of anemia associated with chronic renal failure. The company’s unique approach of creating peptides was most impressive.

The final company visit was to Genentech where Governor Dean and I met with Head of Global Product Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer Ian Clark and Chairman Art Levinson, Ph.D. We toured the expansive campus where 8,000 Genentech employees continue to provide global leadership in biotech innovation.

As we did in San Diego, we ended the day with a broad dinner discussion with local CEOs.

After our two-day whirlwind tour, Governor Dean was awed and amazed at the incredible breadth and depth of biotech innovation and even more passionate about our mission to ensure policy makers and the public understand the critical importance and promise of our industry.

We read an article this morning written by Orville Schell that appeared in today’s Los Angeles Times.

In this article, Schell makes interesting observations about the sharp contrast between the U.S. and other countries like China, South Korea and Sweden who are pro-actively engaged in solving the challenges of today’s world. Toward the end of the piece, he lists the “aspects of U.S life that are still vigorous and filled with potential, aspects of U.S. life that still function but need help and aspects of U.S. life in need of drastic intervention.” Number one on his list of aspects that are vigorous and full of potential is biotechnology, which he says, “is delivering much of the world’s most innovative research and ideas.”

We  encourage each of you to post your comments voicing your support for biotech innovation on the Los Angeles Times site. Feel free  to post your comments to this entry as well.

America’s can’t-do list:  The list of what works in other countries, but no longer does in the U.S., is growing.

Lately, I’ve been studying the melting of glaciers in the greater Himalayas. Understanding the cascading effects of the slow-motion downsizing of one of the planet’s most magnificent landforms has, to put it politely, left me dispirited.

It is impossible to focus on those Himalayan highlands without realizing that something that once seemed immutable and eternal has become vulnerable, even perishable. Those magnificent glaciers are wasting away on an overheated planet, and no one knows what to do about it.

Another tipping point has also been on my mind lately, and it’s left me no less melancholy. In this case, the threat is to my own country, the United States. We Americans too seem to have passed a tipping point. Like the glaciers of the high Himalaya, long-familiar aspects of our nation are beginning to seem as if they are, in a sense, melting away.

In the last few months, as I’ve roamed the world from San Francisco to Copenhagen to Beijing to Dubai, I’ve taken to keeping a double- entry list of what works and what doesn’t, country by country. Unfortunately, it’s become largely a list of what works elsewhere but doesn’t work here. In places such as China, South Korea, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland and (until recently) the United Arab Emirates, you find people hard at work on the challenges of education, transportation, energy and the environment. In these places, one feels the kind of hopefulness and can-do optimism that used to abound in the United States.

China, a country I’ve visited more than 100 times since 1975, elicits an especially complicated set of feelings in me. Its Leninist government doesn’t always live up to Western ideals on such things as political transparency, the rule of law, human rights and democracy. And yet it has managed to conjure an economic miracle. In China today, you feel an unmistakable sense of energy and optimism in the air that, believe me, is bittersweet for an American pondering why the regenerative powers of his own country have gone missing.

As I’ve traveled from China’s gleaming, efficient airports to our often-chaotic and broken-down versions of the same, or ridden on Europe’s high-speed trains that so sharply contrast with our clunky, slowly vanishing passenger rail system, I keep expanding my list of what works here at home and what doesn’t.

Over time, the list’s entries have fallen into three categories. There are things that are robust and growing, replete with promise, the envy of the world. Then there are those things that are still alive and kicking but are precariously balanced between growth and decline. Finally, there are those things that are irredeemably broken.

Here is the score card as I see it.

Aspects of U.S. life that are still vigorous and filled with potential:

Biotechnology, which is delivering much of the world’s most innovative research and ideas.

Silicon Valley, which has enormous inventiveness, energy and capital at its disposal.

Civil society, which, despite the collapse of the economy, seems to be luring the best and brightest young people, and superbly performs the crucial function of goading government and other institutions.

American philanthropy, which is the most evolved, well funded and innovative in the world.

The U.S. military, the best-led, -trained and -equipped on the planet, despite being repeatedly thrust into hopeless wars by stupid politicians.

The spirit and cohesiveness of small-town American life.

The arts, including our film industry, which remains the globe’s sole superpower of entertainment, along with the requisite networks of orchestras, ballet companies, theaters, pop music groups and world-class museums.

Aspects of U.S. life that still function but need help:

Higher and secondary school education, in which America boasts some of the globe’s preeminent institutions. Increasingly, though, many of the best institutions are private, and jewel-in-the-crown public systems such as California’s continue to be hit with devastating budget cuts.

Environmental protection, which compares favorably with that in other countries despite being underfunded.

The national energy system, which still delivers but is overdependent on oil and coal, and depends on a grid badly in need of upgrading.

Aspects of U.S. life in need of drastic intervention.

Public elementary education, which in most states is desperately underfunded and fails to deliver on its promise to provide all children with high-quality schooling.

The federal government, which is essentially paralyzed by partisanship and incapable of delivering solutions to the country’s most pressing problems.

State governments, which are largely dysfunctional and nearly insolvent.

American infrastructure, including highways, docks, bridges and tunnels, dikes, waterworks and other essential systems we aren’t maintaining and upgrading as we should.

Airlines and the airports they service, which are almost Third World in equipment and service standards.

Passenger rail, which has not one mile of truly high-speed rail.

The financial system, whose over-paid executives and underregulated practices ran us off an economic cliff in 2008 and compromised the whole system in the eyes of the world.

The electronic media, which, except for public broadcasting and a vital and growing Internet, are an overly commercialized, broken-down mess that have let down the country in terms of keeping us informed.

Print media, which from newspaper publishing to book publishing are in crisis.

Basic manufacturing, which has fallen so far behind it seems headed for oblivion.

I started keeping these lists because I was searching for things that would banish that dispiriting sense that America is in decline. And yet the can-do list remains unbearably short and the can’t-do one grows each time I travel.

American prowess and promise, once seemingly as much a permanent part of the global landscape as glaciers, mountains and oceans, seems to be melting away by the day, just like the great Himalayan ice fields.

Schell is the director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations. He is the former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and the author of many books on China. A longer version of this article appears at tomdispatch.com.

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!

Check out this video interview of Pete Roskop from the Colorado Office of Economic Development as he describes the biotech sector in Colorado.

December Brings Two Things to Many Americans: Snow and Holidays.

For the biotech sector, December brought a blizzard of year end deals that resulted in nice gifts under the tree for many companies, investors, and let’s not forget – patients suffering from illnesses who will benefit from the infusion of research dollars.

AstraZeneca disclosed last week that it will pay at least $350 million–for Novexel, a French biotech company with a pipeline of therapies designed to target infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria in the hospital. That the bacteria are showing up outside of the hospital is the cause of opportunity for biotechs ready to conquer another serious medical problem.

Novartis has pledged $620 million to buy San Mateo, California-based Corthera, which is pursuing the heart drug Relaxin.

Athersys Inc. signed a deal with Pfizer Inc. worth $6 million upfront and up to $105 million if milestones are met for an experimental stem cell therapy.

And according to Dow Jones, Seattle Genetics Inc. (SGEN) will receive an upfront fee of $12 million and potential milestone payments of as much as $390 million under a collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK). Seattle Genetics is developing an antibody-drug conjugate, which are monoclonal antibodies that reduce some of the toxic impacts of chemotherapy treatments.

These deals are significant not only for the companies themselves, but for the sector which has taken a beating with venture capital shrinking and private deals coming to a screeching halt during the global economic meltdown.  Let’s hope the New Year brings continued opportunities to the biotech pioneers who are working so hard to heal, fuel, and feed the world.  For the people in need of answers, we can only hope the drumbeat of good news will continue.  A December to remember indeed.  Happy New Year to all.

In times of double digit unemployment, it’s especially heartening to see one industry grow. Biotech jobs now account for one in six positions in the Greater Philadelphia region. Think about that. Dr. Timothy Block, co-creator of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County certainly has.

“This is our future,” said Dr. Block, in an article that appeared in yesterday’s Buck’s County Courier Times. “[These jobs] are not only the future of Bucks County, they are one of the key components in our competitiveness in the world. This is still one of the things we do best.”

The Philadelphia region has abundant universities, hospitals, and biotech incubators – all critical to innovation and growing the industry.

“We hope that when companies outgrow our facilities, they reseed and stay close in the area,” said Dr. Block in an interview with IAmBiotech.

And in fact, one company has moved from the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center and relocated to Northern New Jersey. But that’s the only defection in 2009. In fact, nine new companies opened their doors in the Bucks County facility during the past year.

“We’ve gone from 160 to 220 jobs in our building in 2009,” said Dr. Block. “We can’t underestimate the importance of our community – our legislators and congressmen because they have been so supportive.”

During an awful economy, that’s some news that any city or regional business leader would love to have.

And the lessons from the Philly region resonate nationally.

“In times of double digit unemployment, we’re still seeing new biotech company’s spin out of academia and expand their workforce, said Patrick Kelly, VP, State Government Relations for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). “This industry remains a particularly good bet in regions such as Greater Philadelphia that possess a healthy mix of talent and capitol. This is not a zero sum game and the municipalities that foster innovation will continue to thrive in the biotech sector.”

Way to grow, Philly!

Read more here.

At Ceregene, researchers are pioneering a unique method to deliver neurotrophic factors, naturally occurring proteins essential during the early development of the brain and eye, to diseased and dying nerve cells.  The gene delivery technology is a highly targeted approach that could lead to significant breakthroughs for people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, among other devastating illnesses.

Dr. Steve Sherwin, is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Ceregene.  He is also Chairman of the Board of the trade association BIO (which sponsors this site).

He recently offered his thoughts to Ashley McMaster, the editor of BIO’s SmartBrief, on where the industry is headed in 2010.  This is a great snapshot of the hurdles the biotech industry will face.

As the fourth day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference concluded yesterday, the first draft of a climate pact was written.

“Parties shall cooperate to avoid dangerous climate change,” according to the text, proposed by Michael Zammit Cutajar of Malta, who chairs talks on long-term action by all nations at the December 7-18 meeting on a new climate pact in Copenhagen.

The text offered a range for global cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of either at least 50, 85 or 95 percent by 2050. More than 110 world leaders will attend a closing summit on December 18.

According to a recent report by the WWF, adoption of industrial biotechnology could be part of the solution to reducing greenhouse gas emission by between 1 billion and 2.5 billion tons each year.

The WWF concludes that solving global warming means not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also increasing economic growth.

Underpinning this report is that sustainable biotechnology so­lutions, applied in the industrial sector, can provide a vital contribution in the transition from current, unsustainable, economic prac­tices to more sustainable economic systems, that can meet human needs without destroy­ing the natural ecosystems that support life on our planet. To achieve such a transition several critical changes are required, both in mindset and practice, as illustrated by the ta­ble below.

Most people are unaware that industrial bio­technology applications are already applied in a broad range of everyday activities. They are for instance used to reduce the time needed to bake bread, to increase the yield in wine, cheese and vegetable oil production and to save heat in laundry washing and textile mak­ing. In other words, established biotechnol­ogy already allows us to do more with less.

If existing biotechnology solutions were used throughout the food industry today they would save between 114 and 166 million tonnes GHG emissions every year. If existing biotech solutions were used extensively in other tra­ditional industries, such as detergent, textile, and pulp and paper manufacturing, another 52 million tonnes of GHG emissions reduc­tions would be achieved annually.

There have already been significant strides made in industrial biotechnology and we are just beginning to see the full potential that this sector holds.