Alliance to woo biotech companies

S.C. Bio Inc., a state-funded economic development group, is pulling together the state's first member-supported organization dedicated to helping make South Carolina more attractive to biotechnology companies.

The Palmetto Biotechnology Alliance, set to have its first meeting Aug. 20, will act as an industry lobbying force in Columbia and Washington, D.C., and an economic development tool in luring companies from outside the state. The group also will organize the state's annual biotech conference, now handled by S.C. Bio, and function as a conduit between government, biotech companies, universities and prospective employees.

"We haven't kept pace with other states in committing ourselves to growth in this industry," said Dr. Ken Roozen, executive director of the MUSC Foundation for Research Development. "It is a statement on the part of people interested in the life sciences that they think South Carolina is a place where the life-science industry can grow."

The organization will comprise 200 to 300 members --- individuals, companies, universities and government agencies whose dues will help cover its $30,000 to $50,000 annual budget. Unlike S.C. Bio, the alliance will seek to stir up government support of initiatives important to the industry, including securing more taxpayer funds for research endeavors.

The organization will work "hand in hand" with the state Department of Commerce to court both biotech startups and giant life-science companies looking for a good home --- namely a place with smart scientists, a low cost of living and cheap land, water and electricity, according to Karl Kelly, chief executive officer of S.C. Bio Inc. and one of the primary quarterbacks in the alliance's creations. "We have the natural resources; we have the nucleus of research in the existing universities; and we have the business environment that will allow both the recruitment of major companies and the growth of new ones," said Kelly. "I like our odds."

The group will be headed by four directors, each representing a different sector: biotech companies, economic development agencies, biotech service companies and research institutions. The officers are currently being nominated and will be voted into service at the Aug. 20 session.

Many members of South Carolina's biotech community would say it's about time the industry had a unified voice in the state capital and beyond. Other states have pulled ahead in the race to secure biotech jobs and investment. Similar advocacy groups have been set up in 36 states, according to Patrick Kelley, vice president of state relations at Biotechnology Industry Organization, a national advocacy group for the industry. "It appears to me that the state is making a commitment," Kelley said. Roozen said South Carolina is "playing catch-up" to states like California, Massachusetts and North Carolina that have won the lion's share of biotech investment to date.

Biopure, a Massachusetts-based company that plans to build a $120 million manufacturing facility in Sumter, is one of the state's recent success stories. Although the state provided strong "up front incentives" to close the deal, Douglas Sayles, a Biopure spokesman, said a state-specific industry group can expedite the process. "Another major goal of the alliance will be to prevent a "brain drain" from USC, MUSC and Clemson University."

If all goes as planned, the alliance will act as a networking forum in which promising graduates will be quickly matched with potential employers and the fruits of vanguard university research will be spun off to anchor revenue for commercially viable companies. Companies already in South Carolina that join the alliance will also be eligible for cheaper insurance and lab supplies through BIO's national purchasing program.