Our Opinon: Stick with biotech
Keep the faith in state's technology dream
January 25, 2010
Florida dreams of becoming a biotechnology hub, a place where the brilliant and the investment-savvy will come to build the economy of the 21st century.
Eight years ago, Gov. Jeb Bush was asking legislators to invest $100 million to help Florida challenge the nation's high-tech hot spots for future business in biotechnology and biomedical fields, and the push hasn't stopped.
A report last week by the Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA) said the state has spent more than $1.5 billion on this effort. But it also said the state has little to show for it. The report said few companies have followed the big ones — Scripps Florida in Palm Beach County and Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies in St. Lucie County.
Certainly, expecting a new Research Triangle such as thrives in Raleigh, N.C., to sprout up in a decade is really dreaming. Russell Allen, president and CEO of BioFlorida, the trade association founded in 1997 to advance Florida's bioscience industry, pointed out that the Research Triangle has been built over a span of 40 years.
Mr. Allen sees success stories such as the Lake Nona Medical City in Orlando, where infrastructure is being built to support thousands of jobs in biomedical research and related fields. That cluster is being created in large part because the state joined with businesses and local government to attract the Burnham Institute for Medical Research.
The important thing to note is that OPPAGA did not recommend giving up.
Rather, it found a lack of venture capital in Florida and recommended that lawmakers use grants from major research institutes to boost small start-up firms. Ray Johnson, who is president of a biotech company and also leads the Early Stage Biotech Coalition, pointed to the way other states offer grants and loans to help start-ups. Mr. Allen of BioFlorida agreed that a state-sponsored seed fund, matching grant programs and tax policies to encourage R&D still can spur an innovation economy.
But there's a catch.
Amy Baker, head of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research, paints a grim picture of Florida's economic prospects for this year and, thus, for the state budget. And Senate President Jeff Atwater, who is running for chief financial officer, made it clear that in this election year there will be no new taxes and no fee hikes, so funding will be difficult.
It's the same old story.
Stinginess is not the key to success, whether in grade schools or in public universities, in health care or in attracting high-tech industry. You have to spend money to make money. If we don't find the money to invest, Florida's dreams will remain just that.
Dreams.
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