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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Time is now to help biosciences



 (The Spokesman-Review)
Bert Caldwell The Spokesman-Review

Californians last week voted to dedicate $3 billion to stem cell research, a sum that dwarfs commitments by other states and nations competing for leadership in one of the more promising fields of medical research. Already, there are signs the gambit may be working. A major Boston-area biotech company has announced it will open an office in the Golden State.

Washington, too, has a biotechnology community that must be tempted by California’s promise of $300 million a year over the next decade, with that state’s taxpayers responsible for paying the bill. Washington provides no direct assistance to the industry. A business and occupation tax credit and sales tax exemption for research and development costs constitute what modest incentive there is to persevere in the development of new drugs and medical devices.

Last month, the Technology Alliance came up with a better idea.

The group of business and research institution leaders published its report, “Bio 21: Implementing Washington State’s Initiative in 21st Century Health,” which diagrams a strategy for putting the state’s already considerable life sciences and information technology resources to work predicting and preventing disease. The plan envisions a Strategic Trust Fund comprised of $1.35 billion in federal, state and private funds that a seven-member board would distribute to support research and commercialization. The state contribution would come from $350 million in bonus money from the tobacco settlement negotiated with the help of Christine Gregoire, Washington attorney general and would-be Democratic governor-in-waiting.

The alliance estimates the payoff could be 20,000 jobs at 150 new or relocated companies. Gregoire herself proposed a more ambitious program she said would produce still more jobs. It will be up to her or Republican opponent Dino Rossi to ask the Legislature to put the alliance plan in motion next year.

“This is a critical time in the life of biosciences in Washington state,” says Ruth Scott, president of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association. If officials do not eliminate the financial, legal and regulatory impediments to the industry’s expansion, Washington could be left behind.

State leadership in aircraft manufacturing and software are accidents of birth, not the result of some grand design. Washington, though rich in the institutions and expertise necessary for a competitive biotechnology industry, cannot expect to succeed by just standing by.

“We can no longer wait for another Bill (Boeing) and Bill (Gates),” Scott says.

The association advocates an approach to biotechnology development that starts with more support for research institutions like Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, help commercializing promising technologies, and access to seed capital that will sustain companies until investors step in with private money.

With the federal government directing more of its research dollars to technology with potential national security implications, the state and philanthropic organizations dedicated to improvements in public health must step up, she says.

Scott says Bio21 could help Eastern Washington attract more biomedical contract manufacturing companies like Hollister-Stier Laboratories, which employs about 300 in North Spokane.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the Inland Northwest,” she says.

Coincidentally, the Inland Northwest Blood Center Monday announced it has begun a fund-raising drive for $53,000 to enable the Spokane facility to process and store blood stem cells used in the treatment of leukemia and similar disorders.

Scientists see a far more sweeping and mind-boggling potential in embryonic stem cells that could be used for treating paralysis, Parkinson’s disease, or any number of other intractable conditions. Those are the objectives California officials hope their initiative can reach.

Almost 1,500 biotechnology companies in the United States employ 200,000. In Washington, those jobs pay an average $64,000.

Bio 21 represents the kind of forward thinking not always done in Washington. The $3.2 billion in incentives the state put in place for Boeing Co. earlier this year was reactive. That effort will produce an estimated 1,200 jobs. Support for biotechnology could result in a much more impressive payoff.

Unquantifiable is the potential improvement not only in the health of Washingtonians, but people everywhere.