Biotech in Texas is playing catch-up
BYLINE: Lilly Rockwell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Texas needs to draw more venture capital funding and to increase its number of biotech companies if it wants to catch up with established biotechnology centers in California, Massachusetts and North Carolina.
That's the report James Greenwood will deliver to the state's biotech companies at an annual meeting of the Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute on Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency Austin downtown. The former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania is in charge of a lobbying group for the industry, Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Texas, like dozens of other states, has selected biotech as an emerging industry that it wants to expand. It is currently ranked ninth nationally in the number of biotech companies.
"Obviously, Texas is not one of the famous biotech hubs like Boston or San Francisco or San Diego," Greenwood said.
But the state can build its own biotech base, he said.
"Biotechnology is not a zero-sum game," he said. "Texas doesn't have to lure companies away from Boston or San Francisco. What really creates a biotechnology hub begins with very good universities doing very good research and a healthy dose of (National Institutes of Health) funding. Texas is in a very good position."
Industry leaders say Texas is poised to generate more biotechnology companies and research in the coming years. The 20-year-old industry has become a darling of economic development groups because of its potential for growth and high-paying jobs.
The state scored small biotech victories over the past two years. Biotech is one of six technology sectors that the state has identified as promising. It is one of 13 sectors identified as recipients of the $200 million Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which is used to help support startup companies in the state and create regional research initiatives.
A new nonprofit organization dedicated to genomic research was established last year with $50 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a state effort to attract companies to Texas.
The Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine in Houston will partner with biotech companies to develop a mouse embryonic stem cell library. And a new research park slated for San Antonio will host the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and several biotech manufacturing firms.
The biotech industry is expected to grow to $180.5 billion by 2009, rising from $114.1 billion in 2004, according to research firm Datamonitor. Texas is home to about 850 biotech companies that employ 27,420 people. The average annual salary for biotech employees is $77,558.
Other states want a piece of the biotech pie, causing some industry leaders to worry that there are not enough companies or talent to go around.
Other industry experts say Texas is in the early stages of building a biotech industry that will pay off the way Texas' courting of the semiconductor industry paid off in the 1980s.
"The biotech industry may have started in the Bay Area, but so did the computer industry," said David Nance, CEO of Introgen Therapeutics Inc., an Austin drug development company. "Yes, there is a Silicon Valley, but who is number one in the semiconductor industry? Austin."
lrockwell@statesman.com; 445-3819