The 150 megawatt Mesquite Solar 1 installation in Maricopa County, Arizona. | Photo courtesy of Sempra Energy.

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and Consolidated Edison Development (ConEdison Development) have announced an agreement to partner in two of Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s solar power facilities, the 150-megawatt (MW) Copper Mountain Solar 2 plant near Las Vegas and the 150-MW Mesquite Solar 1 power plant near Phoenix.

Under the sales agreement, each company will own a 50-percent interest in the two solar facilities, which are among the largest photovoltaic plants in the U.S. Sempra U.S. Gas & Power will continue to provide operations and maintenance services to both plants.

“This strategic partnership bolsters Sempra U.S. Gas & Power’s ongoing plan to improve its financial returns, deconsolidate debt and redeploy the proceeds from the transaction into new renewable growth projects,” said Kevin C. Sagara, vice president of renewables and corporate development for Sempra U.S. Gas & Power. “We look forward to partnering with Consolidated Edison Development to continue operating world-class solar facilities that supply clean, emission-free electricity to our customers, and to capitalize on our shared view of near-term growth opportunities.”

“This transaction provides ConEdison Development with the opportunity to work with an outstanding partner while we expand our presence throughout the United States,” said Mark Noyes, vice president of ConEdison Development.  “We are partnering in two strategic renewable assets, both with strong project fundamentals, and advancing our commitment to growth in the renewable energy marketplace.”

Phase 1 of Copper Mountain Solar 2 is complete and is currently generating 92 MW of clean solar power.  When the second phase is fully constructed, expected in 2015, the project’s total operating capacity will be 150 MW. Power from the facility has been sold to Pacific Gas & Electric under a 25-year contract.

In September 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office awarded Mesquite Solar 1 a $337 million loan guarantee that enabled it to build this innovative photovoltaic plant, one of the largest in the U.S.  The agreement is subject to approvals from the U.S. Department of Energy and regulatory agencies.  Those approvals are anticipated in the second half of 2013. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

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A new report from the Columbia University Water Center, in conjunction with Veolia Water and Growing Blue, reveals that businesses and cities in America’s most iconic regions are now under greater risk of water scarcity. Utilizing a new research metric called the Normalized Deficit Cumulated (NDC) index in the America’s Water Risk: Water Stress and Climate Variability study, Columbia identifies top ten U.S. areas facing the highest climate-related risk of water shortages, including Washington, D.C and New York City. (PRNewsFoto/Growing Blue)

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

A new report from the Columbia University Water Center, in conjunction with Veolia Water and Growing Blue, reveals that businesses and cities in some of America’s most iconic regions are now under even greater risk of water scarcity.

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The FAA currently is evaluating six U.S. sites as potential test flight centers for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), also known as drones (the Wright-Patterson facility in Ohio is a leading contender). Most of our elected representatives in Washington are gung-ho for the idea, especially in districts with manufacturers who would thrive if the demand for “domestic” drones takes off. Thus far, they’ve been stymied by a handful of civil-liberties and air-safety fuddyduddys who wonder whether filling our skies with robot planes will fatally compromise our right to privacy, to say nothing of the occasional commercial airliner they may bump into.

While we’ve been watching the skies, it looks like the ground may have shifted under our feet.

The plans for mass-producing driverless cars aren’t even on the drawing boards of the major automakers, but a new survey shows that an astounding 60 percent of U.S. motorists are ready to welcome robot cars on American roads.

IT networking giant Cisco this week released the results of its study on the importance of high-tech gadgets to today’s car buyers. Not surprisingly, the Cisco survey found consumers completely enamored with the latest computer-driven automotive capabilities, from cars that park themselves to voice-activated menus for nearby Chinese restaurants.

But the real eyebrow-raiser in the survey was the response to Cisco’s question asking drivers whether they’re ready to trust driverless cars to drive them around.

The results are fascinating. Three nations with emerging automotive markets — and, presumably less experience with driving — gave driverless cars the biggest thumbs up. About 95 percent said yes in Brazil, 86 percent in India and 70 percent in China. They were followed by the U.S. at 60 percent, Russia at 57 percent and Canada at 52 percent.

But in Japan, the nation that has the most experience with robots of any kind, only 28 percent of respondents indicated they would be inclined to slide into the passenger seat of a driverless car. Also, when the risk-taking is expanded from the individual to the family, enthusiasm predictably declines for the driverless car. Fewer respondents in the Cisco survey said they were willing to put their kids in a robot vehicle.

The Cisco survey results may reflect the shape of things to come. Driverless cars probably will be tooling down a highway near you sooner than you think.

The psychological roadblock to the driverless vehicle apparently was shattered by the Google car. The Internet search giant’s robot test vehicle thus far has logged more than 300,000 miles without incident. Google says the technology for a true “fully autonomous driverless car” is still about five years away. Motor Trend, the car magazine, predicts that driverless cars will be in mass production by 2025.

The Cisco survey also revealed that consumers’ trust for automated vehicles extends beyond the steering wheel: the study found that 74 percent of drivers would be fine with their car tracking their driving habits if they could save on insurance and maintenance costs; 65 percent said they would be willing to share their height, weight, driving habits and entertainment preferences with car manufacturers in return for a more “custom” driving experience.

In the same week that Cisco’s survey results were released, the National Transportation Safety Board has proposed to lower the federal blood alcohol level threshold for drunk driving from .08 to .05, a drop of more than a third from the current standard.

Coincidence? We think not. Obviously, there’s some sort of a master plan falling into place here:

STEP 1: Track our movements with drones.

STEP 2: Take our car keys away.

STEP 3: Ply us with alcohol and entice us to recline in the ergonomically designed passenger seat of a driverless car that knows we can be lulled into a mindless sense of euphoria by the smell of Corinthian leather and the sound of Bohemian Rhapsody coming out of 16 speakers.

STEP 4: Deposit us at mass “rehabilitation” centers that have secretly been constructed on former ballistic missile launch sites in the Great Plains.

STEP 5:

(transmission interrupted, contact with human terminated)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

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Technology shares the spotlight with music and film at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX.

By Jenny Vickers
From the March/April 2013 issue

Technology innovation is happening across the country, but there is no better place to witness the revolution other than Austin, TX, home to a rapidly expanding technology industry.

Every year, tens of thousands of people descend on the city for South by Southwest (SXSW), a nine-day stretch of festivals and conferences designed to highlight the hottest new entrants in the world of music, film and technology. Collectively, SXSW is the highest revenue-producing event for the Austin economy, with an estimated economic impact of $167 million in 2011. It has also grown very rapidly over the years—700 participants attended its first event in 1987 and over 30,000 attended this year (up 25 percent from 2012).

The interactive portion of the event focuses on technology and is a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. Foursquare launched there in 2009 and now has 20 million users. This year, BF was on hand at the event to find out more about it. We attended several events hosted by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and caught up with several new innovative tech companies.

Launch Pad For New Tech

“SXSW is a great launching point for new technologies,” said Susan Davenport, Senior Vice President of Global Technology Initiatives at the Chamber who is the lead of all things SXSW tech. “It’s really a huge innovation opportunity to get your new ideas out there and into the mainstream.”

Austin-based medical device company Spot On Sciences, Inc. attended SXSW to pitch its newest device, Hemaspot™, which helped the company become a finalist in the SXSW Interactive Accelerator for innovative health technology.

“Our device allows anyone to take a blood sample in any location at any time and ship or store the samples at room temperature,” said Dr. Jeanette Hill, CEO of Spot On Sciences.

The company is only three years old and has been on the market for three months, yet it has already gained a lot of traction in international markets. The device is now being used in remote locations in Africa for HIV testing and in Scotland for diabetes research.

“For centuries, you had to go into a blood testing facility and it’s a really big barrier for people who are the sickest, homebound and the elderly, as well as people who live in remote locations,” said Dr. Hill. “With this device you can take the test from home or any location. You don’t need a lab, centrifuge, or to ship it cold. You can take a sample then mail it to the lab.”

For its groundbreaking work, the company received a $1 million Small Business Innovation Research award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in July 2012.

“DARPA did the initial work to develop the Internet, GPS system, and rockets,” said Dr. Hill. “They think big. So they are funding us because they see our device as a way to really change the way we do health care. We really want to revolutionize clinical science.”

The device is based on dried blood spot (DBS) technology, which is best known for newborn screening and has many additional commercial uses for clinical trials, bio-banking, population studies and a wide range of medical research.

Digital technology startup UMeTime is changing the way businesses are connecting with new customers. They have built a platform that gives local business the ability to control and offer deals at their convenience. Whether you are a business that needs to speed up your slow hours, fill your empty chairs and tables, or sell sitting inventory, UMeTime offers merchants the capability to overcome these barriers and drive sales and revenue.

The company has officially launched its mobile application and is available now on iTunes or Google Play.

“Unlike Groupon and Living Social, UMeTime functions on a hyperlocal level,” said UMeTime co-founder Brett Berman. “The app allows locals to see what’s happening around them in real time, from local businesses that they like. Customers can use it for free on their mobile device.”

UMeTime moved from L.A. to Austin three months ago to take advantage of its bustling tech scene and lower taxes.

“Austin is a very collaborative environment, from the Chamber to the government to the capital factor, startups want to support each other here,” said Berman.

Since launching in Austin just three years ago, local start-up Tabbed Out has grown from a few bars and restaurants in downtown Austin to 1,000 locations nationwide. It has developed an app that lets customers pay their tabs with their phone.

“We not only made the app, but also the software that goes on the point of sale,” said Meredith Schultz, managing marketer at Tabbed Out. “We are the only company targeted for hospitality—bars and restaurants. Our app solves the pain of tipping and splitting the tab, as well as provides the ability for customers to provide feedback to the bar or restaurants.”

Tabbed Out now has a partnership with T.G.I. Fridays and is expanding to other cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, DC, Dallas and Houston. The company is located in downtown Austin close to the famous 6th street, a popular location of bars and restaurants. “Austin is very friendly for start-ups and emerging technology companies,” said Schultz. “In L.A. it’s more competitive, but in Austin everyone is friendly and there to support you especially when you are starting a new business.”

We also caught up with Firefly LED Lighting’s founder and CEO Steve Barcik Amstel, who is stepping into a new role with Convergence Wireless, a wireless networking technology company that has produced the first all wireless lighting control system for buildings.

“Whereas now there is no easy way to do an energy management system without pulling a lot of wire, our product will allow you to install an energy management and information management system and even cellular, just by adding our device to light fixtures,” said Amstel.

After Firefly LED Lighting was acquired by a larger lighter company, Austin-based Convergence Wireless seemed a perfect next step for Amstel, who has lived in Austin for 27 years and started out as a facilities engineer at Texas Instruments. Amstel founded Firefly in 2009 and won the GM technology award for his work in developing long life and high efficiency LED lighting.

“I’ve always had an interest in energy management and facilities management and how can we use new things like Internet and sensing and bigger computer power to make a difference,” said Amstel. “There is so much opportunity to reduce our country’s energy demand and to save money for facilities through these technologies that I keep getting involved in it because I get excited about what we’re going to be able to do.”

Convergence Wireless is part of the Austin Technology Incubator, which helps breakthrough a number of clean energy and energy efficiency companies each year and has led Austin to being dubbed the “Clean Energy Capital of the U.S.”

“When you look at the number of startups in Austin around clean energy and environmental considerations it’s really taken off as a clean energy mecca for start-up companies,” said Amstel.

Amazon Puts Three New Warehouses In Texas

Amazon has announced plans to open three new fulfillment centers in the state of Texas, creating more than 1,000 jobs. The sites, which will use advanced technology to help fulfill customer orders, will be located in the cities of Coppell, Haslet and Schertz.

“We look forward to putting more than 1,000 Texans to work at our new fulfillment centers in Schertz, Coppell and Haslet,” said Mike Roth, Amazon’s vice president of North American fulfillment. “We appreciate the state and local elected officials who have helped us make this exciting investment in the state of Texas.”

“We’re pleased Amazon is investing in Texas by bringing three fulfillment centers and more than 1,000 jobs to our state,” said Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. “I thank Amazon for working with us—making it possible to bring new jobs and revenue to the state of Texas.”

“This is the biggest economic development partnership announcement in the history of our city,” said city of Haslet Mayor Bob Golden. “The jobs and potential tax base that this development will bring to our community is a major milestone in our city’s growth.”

The 1.2 million-square-foot site in Schertz and the 1 million-square-foot site in Coppell will handle larger items—anything from televisions to bbqs, for example. The 1.1 million-square-foot site in Haslet will handle smaller items like books, small electronics or DVDs, to name a few.

“Amazon, coming to Coppell, complements our strategy of building a quality business base that supports the community and the region,” said Coppell Mayor Karen Hunt. “We are thrilled Amazon chose Coppell for a new fulfillment center. We recognize their large capital investment and new jobs brought to this area.”

Recently, Amazon committed to hire more than a thousand veterans in the U.S. in the upcoming year to join the hundreds of veteran employees it has on staff currently. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates there are more than 1.6 million veterans in the state of Texas.

“We are thrilled to welcome Amazon to Schertz,” said city of Schertz Mayor Michael Carpenter. “The investment Amazon is making in our community is significant, and it is a manifest expression by yet another highly successful and well-respected company that Schertz is a great place to do business.”

USAA Real Estate Company is building the project in Schertz. Hillwood Development Company is building the project in the city of Haslet as part of AllianceTexas, a 17,000-acre, master-planned community, and is also constructing the project in the city of Coppell.

Pipe Mill Coming To Bay City

Tenaris has announced it will build its first U.S. seamless pipe mill in Bay City, Matagorda County, TX. With its proximity to Houston and to Tenaris’ North American headquarters, the location offers a combination of favorable geography, operational logistics and availability of a skilled workforce.

“Our new facility will complement our integrated global manufacturing network and work closely with our existing North American operations to further strengthen domestic production,” Paolo Rocca, Chairman and CEO, said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (with hard hat) and Tenaris President, North America, German Cura at a recent press conference announcing Bay City as the location of Tebaris’ first U.S seamless mill.

“This announcement is only possible, thanks to the hard work of state and local officials, as well as, the area business community, which always plays a major role in decisions like this,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “The most profound statement about our favorable economic climate comes when companies like Tenaris make an investment of this size in our state.”

“With this investment, we will strengthen our local production and service capabilities to address the growing demands of the energy industry,” German Cura, President, North America, said. “We are grateful for the support we have had from The State of Texas, Matagorda County and Bay City.”

An analysis conducted on the economic impact of Tenaris in Matagorda County states the company will have a large direct and indirect influence on the area. The new plant will generate 600 direct manufacturing jobs and offer substantial economic impact in Matagorda County as well as in the surrounding areas.

“The company’s commitment to the environment and safety is a top priority,” Cura said. “The facility is being designed according to the most stringent environmental and safety standards, with the implementation of control technologies that will reduce our emissions footprint and exceed state and federal regulations.” The new facility is expected to begin operations in 2016.

The growing biotech sector the Lone Star State recently got a shot in the arm from a federal initiative to expand domestic manufacturing of flu vaccines. [See related coverage of Texas biotechnology activities here.]

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and Texas A&M University System announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has approved the establishment of a $91 million influenza-vaccines manufacturing facility as the anchor of the Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) in Bryan-College Station, TX.

“The Texas A&M Center, anchored by this facility, is expected to bring more than $41 billion in expenditures within the State of Texas over the next 25 years, and will add more than 6,800 direct and related jobs to Texas,” Gov. Rick Perry said.

“GSK is privileged to deepen our commitment to U.S. public health, as part of this unprecedented public-private collaboration to protect against pandemics and bio-threats,” noted Antoon Loomans, senior vice president, GSK Vaccines. “In Texas A&M, we have found a partner with a rich tradition of service and with pioneering technologies that will benefit the entire pharmaceutical industry in making vaccines available and accessible to all in need.”

The Texas A&M Center for Innovation is headed by Dr. Brett Giroir, vice chancellor for Strategic Initiatives at the Texas A&M System, and a core team of A&M experts in biotechnology, infectious diseases, facilities planning and construction, federal acquisitions/contracting, and government affairs. The partnership with GSK was founded on a long, collaborative relationship between Texas A&M and the Wallonia Region of Belgium, with specific planning for this project beginning in the spring of 2010.

Once constructed and operational, the Center’s influenza manufacturing facility will be able to supply 50 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine within four months of an outbreak.

“GSK’s decision to partner with Texas A&M and bring their vaccine manufacturing to our state is a testament to the investments that the A&M System and the State of Texas have made in the people, infrastructure and technologies, much of which came from critical state programs such as the Emerging Technology Fund,” Giroir said.” GSK brings unequaled influenza vaccine development, manufacturing, and regulatory expertise to our Center.”

Hitting The Sweet Spot In Sugar Land, TX

The City of Sugar Land, TX has combined a great quality of life, a growing constellation of cultural attractions and a business-friendly climate that should prove attractive to companies looking for prime locations for their facilities and tourists looking for an interesting and entertaining destination.

The focal point of Sugar Land’s push to become a destination of choice is the redevelopment of the Imperial Sugar refinery and adjacent Tract 3 property. Last year, Constellation Field, became the first project to open within the Imperial Development. This a gem of a ballpark, already becoming the go-to place for year-round entertainment, embraces the three goals of the redevelopment: historic preservation of key buildings; continued aesthetic/architectural quality; and economic development that creates successful and vibrant community projects.

The Sugar Land Skeeters’ inaugural minor league baseball season at Constellation Field last year set an Atlantic League attendance record of 465,511. When compared to minor league teams affiliated with Major League Baseball, Sugar Land ranked third in Texas behind the Triple A Round Rock Express and Double A Frisco Roughriders. In a national comparison of all professional minor league baseball teams, both affiliated and independent, Sugar Land’s average game attendance was in the top 25, with 6,751 guests per game. Constellation Field was chosen via fan vote for Baseball America’s 2013 Great Parks Calendar, the Skeeters organization was named a runner–up for Baseball Digest ‘s 2012 Organization of the Year and the new stadium was selected to host the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament, scheduled to take place in May.

Constellation Field serves as a year–round venue for community events, such as concerts and sports tournaments. It has a variety of dynamic settings, accommodating intimate catered events to large–scale stadium seating of up to 5,000 for on–field events. The stadium offered a variety of indoor and outdoor meeting and party rooms for businesses, weddings or other events. The stadium’s first two concert events were performances by REO Speedwagon and ZZ Top.

Design has begun on planned indoor Performing Arts Center that is planned for a 21-acre site near the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and University Boulevard, with a letter of intent with ACE SL, LLC was approved in August by the Sugar Land Development Corp. The City intends to create a financially feasible, operationally self–sustainable signature facility that will promote economic development, create jobs and enhance educational offerings.

To help give ACE input on the facility’s amenities, appearance and function, two planning sessions were held in the fall with team members from ACE, the architects and the City. The schematic designs are expected to be completed and ready to share with the community this spring. No timeline has been set for completion of the project. The venue will be located in Telfair within a larger mixed–use development that includes the future campuses of Fluor Enterprises, Inc. and Texas Instruments, Inc., and other proposed uses, such as a hotel and restaurant.

Sugar Land Town Square is a 32–acre, award–winning, mixed–use, public–private development. It is now fully developed and contains upscale retail and restaurants, Class A offices, a hotel and conference center, residential condominiums and City Hall. Retailers that opened in Town Square in fiscal year 2012 included Sur la Table, Gem and Bead Gallery, Pinot’s Palette, Brilliant Sky Toys and Books and Revolution Studio. New restaurants included Ruggles Green, Guru Burgers & Crepes and BLU.

The 1.3–acre plaza hosted 200 free events in fiscal year 2012 attended by nearly 100,000 people. Events included Fitness in the Plaza, Halloween Town, Christmas Tree Lighting and the New Year’s Eve event, as well as art and fashion shows, international festivals and awareness campaigns.

At the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land, the Hall of Paleontology has been expanded and is now twice its original size. Arranged in chronological order, it features a triceratops and many exquisite fossils from the Paleozoic era, as well as a large collection of trilobites, extinct arthropods, Stenopterygius, Holzmaden and a sea crocodile. A new, saltwater aquarium includes a wide variety of fishes and aquatic life.

Sugar Land’s stable local economy is a magnet for relocating and expanding firms. In fiscal year 2012, significant relocations were announced, including several Fortune 500 firms that operate internationally and other national and local firms. These combined projects will result in more than $221 million in new capital investment, 1000 new jobs, 2,000 retained jobs and more than 423,000 square feet of newly constructed or leased space.

Several key planned development applications were approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council during 2012, including the Imperial/Tract 3 and Telfair developments. The City Council approved the Imperial General Land Plan Amendment 1 and zoning applications for 690–acres (the majority of the development in Imperial was Constellation Field and the associated street construction). Several key projects continue within the Telfair commercial area near U.S. Highway 59, including a Costco store, the future office campus for Texas Instruments and Fluor and planning for the performing arts center.

At the end of fiscal year 2012, Sugar Land had more than 23 million square feet of commercial space; this included 7.5 million square feet of office space, 7.6 million square feet of retail space and 8.2 million square feet of industrial space.

The Sugar Land Development Corporation and Sugar Land 4B Corporation (SL4B) each collect a quarter cent sales tax that directly funds economic development programs and City activities. The focus of SLDC is business recruitment and retention initiatives, while SL4B focuses more on quality–of–life initiatives and strategic development projects.

Propane Mega-Plant Fuels Job Growth In Alvin, TX

Gov. Rick Perry recently announced that Ascend Performance Materials Texas Inc. will construct a new propane dehydrogenation facility in Alvin, Texas, creating 100 jobs and $1.2 billion in capital investment. The state is providing $1 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund to close the deal on this expansion and job creation. Execution of the state’s agreement is contingent upon finalization of a local incentive package.

“Through our combination of low taxes, predictable regulations, fair courts, skilled workforce and competitive incentives like the TEF, Texas is a national model for creating jobs and prosperity,” Gov. Perry said. “Ascend’s new facility in Brazoria County, with more than a billion dollars worth of capital investment and the creation of 100 new jobs, further strengthens the Gulf Coast’s economy and chemical production industry.”

Ascend is a global leader in proprietary technologies central to the production of chemicals, and Nylon 6,6 plastics and fibers. Nylon 6,6 is the material of choice for high performance applications in the engineering plastics and fibers industries globally, and can be found in thousands of commercial and industrial products such as apparel, automotive, building and industrial, chemicals, consumer goods, electronic and military industries. The company has five manufacturing facilities in the U.S., which allow it to develop new products from its core technologies, and provides flexibility to respond to the expanding needs of its customers. The new facility in Alvin will focus on propane dehydrogenation, a method of producing propylene, which is common chemical building block for plastic and synthetic fiber products.

“This project builds on the existing strength of the Ascend position as a global leader in the chemicals and nylon businesses. The active support of the governor’s office, as well as that of state and local authorities, has contributed to our progress in the early stages of the development of the project,” said Tim Strehl, Ascend president.

“Ascend picked the right place to expand their business,” State Sen. Larry Taylor said. “The talented workforce in Senate District 11 and the State of Texas can provide the perfect partners for innovative companies looking to succeed.”

The Ascend project is just the latest of several major projects that have come to fruition in Texas as the oil and gas giant continues to flex its energy muscles. Gov. Perry announced last year that Dow Chemical Co. will create 150 new jobs and $1.7 billion in capital investment with the location of a hydrocarbon cracker in Brazoria County. The governor was joined at the announcement by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Dow CEO and Chairman Andrew Liveris and lawmakers; Perry committed the state to investing $1 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) to close the deal on this project.

“When it comes to attracting jobs, the Texas Enterprise Fund may help close the deal and provide the final piece of the puzzle, but it’s Texas’ growing reputation as the country’s best place to build your business that puts us in the running in the first place,” Gov. Perry said. “This announcement is great news for Texas, and even better news for the people who will eventually work at this new facility thanks to this TEF investment.”

Dow Chemical Co. is a worldwide manufacturer and supplier of products that go into businesses such as specialty chemicals, electronics, agrosciences and plastics. The new ethylene cracker in Brazoria County will processes natural gas and natural gas liquids to create ethylene, to produce plastic resins and other chemical intermediates that are used to manufacture a variety of materials including transportation, building and construction, infrastructure, wire and cable, medical devices, personal care and food packaging. This will be Dow’s largest ethylene cracker worldwide, and will use U.S. produced shale gas and natural gas liquids.

“Dow is proud to be making a significant investment in Texas with the construction of a new world-scale ethylene production plant—a key part of our comprehensive plan to further connect our U.S. operations with cost-advantaged feedstocks available from increasing supplies of U.S. shale gas,” Dow Chemical Company chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris said. “We received a lot of support from our local community and from this business-friendly state via the Texas Enterprise Fund, and are proud to expand upon our longstanding history of investing in Texas.”

The Legislature created the TEF in 2003 and has re-appropriated funding in every legislative session since then to help ensure the growth of Texas businesses and create more jobs throughout the state. TEF projects must be approved by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House. The fund has since become one of the state’s most competitive tools to recruit and bolster business. To date, the TEF has invested more than $498.8 million and closed the deal on projects generating more than 67,400 new jobs and more than $19.9 billion in capital investment in the state.

Gov. Perry has made diversifying the energy mix of Texas’ electricity market one of his major priorities, helping to lower electricity prices. In 2012, Texas relied on a variety of fuel sources to meet the growing demand for electricity, including 34 percent of energy produced coming from coal, 45 percent from natural gas, 12 percent from nuclear, 9 percent from wind, and 0.5 percent from other sources such as hydro, biomass, landfill gas, and solar.

In 2007, Gov. Perry signed comprehensive energy efficiency legislation, House Bill 3693, into law. This legislation created incentives to reduce energy costs through investing in energy efficiency technologies. As a result, Texans reduced electric consumption in 2009 alone in the state by 506,000 megawatt hours. In 2011, Perry signed Senate Bill (S.B.) 1125 increasing the energy efficiency goals, including cost caps for those programs to ensure the costs remain reasonable for customers, and allowing consumers to participate in the generation market through demand-management.

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Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Construction is expected to begin early next year on the new La Paloma Power Plant, to be located in the Harlingen Industrial Park in Harlingen, TX. At its peak, the enormous $650 million project will have more than six hundred workers on site, with most of the work force to be recruited locally. The plant is being developed by Coronado Power Ventures, LLC and Bechtel.

Robert Deatherage, Vice President and Industrial Relations Manager for Becon Construction Company, is general contractor for the La Paloma Power Plant project. Deatherage met with Harlingen EDC, Cameron County Workforce Solutions and Texas State Technical College executives to discuss employment and training of the customized work force needed for success of the project.

“It’s the start of a long and exciting project which will provide enough energy to interest additional manufacturers and other heavy power users,” says Raudel Garza, CEO, Harlingen EDC. “The first step involves survey and environmental crews, with human resource personnel to begin the hiring process by the end of 2013.”

Jobs to be filled will include site preparation workers, carpenters, iron workers, concrete finishers, pipe fitters, welders, and electricians as well as administrative, mechanical, electrical and industrial personnel.  Project construction is expected to take nearly two and a half years.

“With a young, abundant and trainable workforce, and a low cost of living, in addition to our pro-business environment and quality of place, it makes sense for this project and other businesses to locate facilities in Harlingen,” stated Rick Ledesma, HEDC Board Chariman.

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Posted by Heidi Schwartz

The Hertz Corporation has announced that the company will relocate its worldwide headquarters to Estero, FL (Lee County, near Bonita Springs and Fort Myers) from Park Ridge, NJ. Hertz made the decision following its recent acquisition of the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, which was finalized on November 19, 2012. Dollar Thrifty is currently headquartered in Tulsa, OK.

Consolidating the corporate offices to one location will allow for increased efficiencies and cost synergies across the company. Additionally, access to the Florida travel and tourism population will position the company for long-term growth. According to Visit Florida, there are approximately 1 million employees in the state’s travel and tourism industry, Florida’s largest business segment. Hertz also noted that Orlando is the world’s largest car rental market, and that Miami is a hub for accelerating travel growth between the United States and Latin America.

Starting this year, up to 700 jobs will be relocated to Florida over a two-year period.  More than 2,000 Hertz and Dollar Thrifty personnel will remain in New Jersey, including approximately 150 employees who currently work in Park Ridge. All other Park Ridge employees will be able to retain their current positions at the new headquarters, scheduled to be completed in early 2015. Hertz was founded in Chicago, IL in 1918, and moved its headquarters to New Jersey from mid-town Manhattan in 1988.

“After our recent business expansion, we have been looking for the right location to blend Hertz and Dollar Thrifty head office employees,” Hertz Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark P. Frissora said. “Florida is the center of the U.S. travel and tourism industry—this move enables us to be closer to leisure and business customers as well as many travel and association partners. As part of this move, we will open off-airport and retail car sales stores on our headquarters campus, which will enable us to experiment with new services and monitor customer satisfaction first hand. Lee County, on the Southwestern Gulf Coast of Florida, is a well-established travel destination with tremendous growth potential, with easy access to other leading tourism markets including Orlando, Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Tampa/St. Petersburg.”

Hertz and Dollar Thrifty have more employees in Florida than in any other state except California, and Florida rents more cars per capita than any other state. Florida provides ready access to a vast and diverse talent pool, including 3,000 of its own employees. All of these factors supported the company’s final decision.

Frissora added, “This is the best, most balanced business decision based on market factors as well as the needs of our employees and customers. The relocation results in a positive financial return to the company and we will provide more details during our next quarterly earnings call. Additionally, in no way should this decision be perceived as a slight to our partners in New Jersey and Oklahoma. We recognize the significant efforts undertaken in recent years in both states to create and retain jobs, while improving the overall business climate.  In particular, over the last several years we have seen significant improvement in New Jersey’s business climate and our decision should not be interpreted as a reflection of our views about doing business in the Garden State.  New Jersey has been our home since 1988 and would have been for countless more if not for our acquisition of Dollar.

“Because of these efforts, we will continue to grow our car and equipment rental businesses in New Jersey and Oklahoma. We are retaining e-commerce and certain financial functions in northern New Jersey thanks to the state’s strength in the financial services industry.  Oklahoma will continue to be our primary home for IT, customer service and financial support driving our North American businesses.  Overall, we concluded that it is in the best interests of our company, which is primarily in the travel and tourism business, to be near our largest market.

“We also want to note that the New Jersey Partnership for Action was very active and effective in their efforts to entice us to remain in New Jersey, and we are grateful for their efforts.”

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Pacific Corporate Park in Dulles, VA is now known as Raytheon’s “Dulles Hub.” (Photo: Foxcorp.com)

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Raytheon Company has announced that two of its four businesses will have new headquarters locations. The decisions stem from the company consolidation announced March 25, 2013, intended to streamline operations, increase productivity and achieve stronger alignment with its customers’ priorities.

Raytheon’s newly formed Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS) business will establish its headquarters at the company’s existing Dulles, VA, hub operations in Sterling, VA. IIS provides a full range of ISR, navigation, weather, cybersecurity, training, logistics, mission support and engineering solutions for the intelligence community, government and commercial customers.

Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business headquarters will transition from El Segundo, CA, to McKinney, Texas, where the company already has a major business presence. Raytheon will maintain business operations in California, as well as in other states. SAS builds radars and other sensors for aircraft, spacecraft and ships; provides communications and electronic warfare solutions; and performs research in areas ranging from linguistics to quantum computing.

The headquarters of Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems and Missile Systems businesses remain in Tewksbury, MA, and Tucson, AZ, respectively.

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Posted by Heidi Schwartz

The Prolamsa Group has announced it will build its new 300,000-plus tons-per-year pipe and tubular products facility at Texas Triangle Park in Bryan, TX. The mill, which will cost in excess of $120 million dollars, is expected to employ more than 285 people.

The facility will operate under a newly formed company, Axis Pipe and Tube, Inc. It is scheduled to begin production by mid-2014 and will produce Energy tubular products aimed at meeting the growing demand of the U.S. oil and natural gas industries.

Bryan, TX located in Brazos County, was selected after a comprehensive search of possible sites throughout the southeastern and southwestern United States. Company officials said that Bryan was chosen for several reasons including the business-friendly environment, the adequate supply of skilled labor nearby, and its proximity to a large and growing base of customers for the plant’s products. Prolamsa has been granted approvals for certain economic incentives and is in the process of processing and finalizing others, which played a critical role throughout the site selection process.

Company officials went on to praise the state and local public officials who assisted in the selection process. A company spokesman said, “Everyone from Governor Perry’s office, to public officials from Brazos County and the city of Bryan, and the Research Valley Partnership was extremely helpful and provided the information and an enthusiastic spirit that convinced us to locate in Bryan. We felt they truly wanted us as neighbors and business partners.”

The new 183 acre plant will produce ERW energy tubular products in diameters up to 16″, with wall thicknesses up to .625″. It will have the capability to produce API grades as well as ASTM specified products.

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Four economic development organizations representing five Plains states have signed on to sponsor the ninth annual event, which will take place May 19 – 21, 2013 at the Westin Stonebriar in Dallas, Texas.

LiveXchange sponsors from the Plains will include:

• Joplin Regional Partnership (Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma)
• Overland Park Chamber of Commerce (Kansas)
• Quad Cities (Iowa, Illinois)
• Greater Oklahoma City Chamber (Oklahoma)

Sponsors representing the U.S. South, Southwest, Great Lakes, and New England/Mid-Atlantic will also be participating. A current list of all sponsors can be found by clicking here.

To learn more about LiveXchange, or to apply to attend, please click here.

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Scripps Research Institute in Palm Beach, FL

By Stefanie Ramsperger and Jack Rogers
From the March/April 2013 issue

The recovery in the biotech sector appears to be solidifying. According to the most recent biotechnology report published by Ernst & Young, the sales in established biotech markets grew more than 10 percent in 2012. This threshold hasn’t been crossed since the outbreak of the worldwide financial crisis. Expenditures for research and development significantly increased by 9 percent.

About $33.4 billion in venture capital was raised in the sector. However, mostly big enterprises profited from this inflow whereas small- and medium-sized companies still have to suffer from a depletion of seed money since the Recession. In contrast to the U.S., financing in Europe has not regained the levels seen prior to the financial crisis. A retreat in the public markets in 2011 resulted in overall financing levels that are back to those seen in 2008, reflecting the continuing struggles of the Eurozone countries over the sovereign debt of some member countries.

While the biotechnology sectors of Eurozone countries are relatively small, the uncertainty has driven investors across the continent to seek lower risk. One bright spot is that, similar to the U.S., Europe has seen venture capital hold relatively steady. Across Europe, there were 56 venture rounds of greater than $5 million (down from 65 in 2010). The most significant venture capital transactions included $39 million raised by Symphogen (Denmark), $99 million raised by Biocartis (Switzerland) and $96 million raised by Circassia (United Kingdom). Biotech accounts for approximately 15 percent of total venture capital investment across Europe, a slightly higher percentage than in the U.S. in 2011.

In Europe the list of commercial leaders—Actelion, Elan Corp., Eurofins Scientific, Ipsen, Meda, Novozymes, Qiagen and Shire—has not changed since 2007. In 2011, the revenues of these commercial leaders increased by 19 percent, while those of the other companies decreased by an identical percentage. The same pattern was repeated across all the major indicators, with the health of a few large companies increasing as the rest of the industry saw its performance worsen.

In this year’s Global Biotech Report, we zero in on several locations in Europe that are well-positioned for future success, including three biotech hubs in Germany and key biotech/ pharma centers in Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg that have strengthened their competitive position in the global market in recent years. As always, we also take a fresh look at the leading biotech and pharmaceutical hubs in the U.S.

Hessen Keeps Getting Bigger In Biotech/Pharma

Biotech is among the most important sectors of the Hessen region and this sector is growing every year. With Frankfurt recognized as the financial capital of Germany, the area is well known for its excellence in the service sector. However, the region also excels in manufacturing industries, and it is Germany’s logistics gateway to the world.

More than 19,500 people are employed in the biotech/pharma sector in Hessen. The area has 225 biotech companies (of which 59 are core biotech concerns), and 14 percent of these employ at least 500 people. In the last decade, Hessian biotech companies have more than doubled their revenues to over 5.2 billion Euros.

The strength of Hessen’s biotech sector are a multitude of R&D programs, its number of industry patents and its domination in the medical sector of biotechnology—known as “red” biotech, accounting for 81 percent of all Hessian biotech revenues (according to the latest Location Study Hessen-Biotech, which was commissioned by Hessen’s location marketing organization, Hessen Trade and Invest GmbH). However, industrial biotechnology (“white” biotechnology) is on the rise. About 56 percent of all biotech companies in Hessen have their own R&D programs.

White biotechnology is located at the interfaces of chemistry, biology and the engineering sciences. “It uses microorganisms and enzymes to create new substances and processes for the purpose of producing innovation for many different user sectors, for example amino acids, vitamins and aromas for the food industries,” explains Dr. Thomas Niemann, Director Technology and Future at Hessen Trade and Invest GmbH.

The biotech/pharma activities in Hessen center around two clusters: one is located in Central Hessen, the other is in the southern part of the State. Hessen is a stronghold in biotech production. Out of a total capacity of more than 830,000 liters of fermentation production in the manufacture of “red” biotech in Germany, more than 250,000 liters are attributed to Hessen. Production takes place in Frankfurt (sanofi-aventis), Marburg (Novartis- Behring), and Hanau (Heraeus).

Höchst Industrial Park in Frankfurt is one of Europe’s largest chemical and pharmaceutical parks and looks back to almost 150 years of chemistry tradition. Just in 2012, tenants invested 310 Million Euros, bringing the total to about 5.5 Billion Euros since 2000. Höchst hosts 90 on-site companies, among them sanofi-aventis, Bayer CropScience, Clariant and Celanese. Researchers, manufacturers, customers and service providers come together at the site and cooperate in terms of raw materials and infrastructure. They also join forces with regard to future-oriented technologies, because the Industrial Park embodies a wealth of research and production know-how. Site operator Infraserv Höchst offers services with regards to secondary processes; for example, they provide the companies with raw materials on-site, do the facility management and run site security. New companies can also rely on their patent lawyers, engineering consultants and other personnel services, which decreases their starting cost.

Hessen has five universities and five Schools of Applied Sciences that cooperate with biotech companies. Hessen is particularly strong in the field of Medical Technology. It comprises a total of 900 medical tech companies, which employ more than 20,000 people. Many of them are located at Höchst Industrial Park. According to Dr. Niemann, “one-third of the German production capacity of biotechnological medicine is centered in Hessen.”

Recently, the importance of “white” (industrial) has increased in the area. The Cluster Initiative Integrated Biotechnology (CIB) in Frankfurt supports networking in this field. The cluster was one of the winners of the “BioIndustry 2021” contest held by the Federal Ministry of Research. The Hessian state government also has set up a state initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE) with the aim of providing long-term support for the research landscape. “This especially includes new ideas in Industrial Biotechnology,” says Niemann. “In Hessen, funds of more than 32 million Euros are made available for Industrial Biotechnology.”

Another promising biotech field is “personalized medicine.” CI3 is a network in Hessen to advance individualized immune intervention. It has been selected as one of Germany’s leading edge clusters in 2012 and has thus been awarded 40 million Euros by the German government. “Research in this field is very promising,” confirms Niemann. “The cluster, that is supported by the states of Hessen, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wurttemberg and has 120 member-institutions, is on its way to the very top.”

The cluster CI3 works on innovative medicine that is exactly adjusted to the individual patient, who suffers, for example, from tumors or autoimmune diseases. The center of the cluster is based in Mainz. The idea of the cluster is that companies and research facilities will work in partnerships on 78 different projects. The project partners estimate a total volume of approximately 130 million Euros.

“Universities, other research facilities, small and medium-sized companies as well as international players in the field—we have the whole value chain in Hessen,” says Thomas Niemann. Among the project partners are, for example, the technical university Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institution, Georg-Speyer-Haus, Abbott, Biotest, sanofi-aventis and Merck.

Berlin: Biotech Mega-Hub

The Berlin-Brandenburg region concentrates on clinical research. In the capital of Germany, biotechnology is a strong force driving innovation and growth, interfacing with the pharmaceutical, diagnostics and medical technology sectors. Berlin-Brandenburg has a versatile research and clinical landscape. HealthCapital, the cluster management of the region’s healthcare industries, was implemented in 2010. Its goal is to coordinate companies, research and education institutes to foster collaboration and innovation.

Among the focus areas of Berlin-Brandenburg are biomedicine and diagnostics, therapeutics and regenerative medicine and industrial biotechnology. Berlin-Brandenburg is home to more than 200 biotech companies. The sector employs more than 4,000 people. In addition, pharmaceutical and medtech companies in the area have another 10,000 employees each.

Like Munich, Berlin is a top location for start-ups. In 2012, Berlin was ranked the top start-up region in Germany by Foreign Direct Investment magazine. The region offers foreign companies reimbursement grants of up to 50 percent. Berlin is not only home of various start ups, but existing bioscience companies are expanding in the area. In 2012, Takeda made Berlin its distribution headquarters. The Japanese pharmaceutical company is Berlin’s most recent arrival, having relocated its distribution unit from Aachen and Konstanz to Berlin.

Also, sanofi-aventis and B. Braun Melsungen made large investments to expand their existing locations in Berlin. B. Braun Melsungen had their roofing ceremony in January 2013. The 38.2 million Euro expansion project increases the size of the production site by 65 percent. Injectable solutions in plastic containers will be manufactured there. The building will probably be completed by October 2013. Production lines will be installed in 2014. B. Braun Melsungen expects to create 25 new jobs by 2015.

In the past five years, B. Braun Melsungen already had invested 40 Million Euros in Berlin for expansion projects. 670 employees already work for the company in Berlin. In total, the business has three sites in Germany’s capital.

Among other major global corporations that are located in the capital region are Bayer Pharma AG, Berlin-Chemie AG, Pfizer Deutschland and sanofi-aventis. In the past years, sales revenues of more than 5 billion Euros were generated by pharmaceutical products of 24 Berlin-based pharma companies. Together, they employ 10,000 people in the area.

Among a variety of research institutes in Berlin that focus on Life Sciences are four Max Planck institutes, two Fraunhofer institutes, Leibniz institutes and Helmholtz centers, five universities and four universities of the Applied Sciences.

The Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) was founded in November 2012. On this occasion, Professor Walter Rosenthal, chairman of the board and scientific director of the Max Delbück Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin Buch, said: “The founding of the Berlin Institute of Health is a unique opportunity for the German science landscape to restructure the collaboration between a non-university research institution and a university medical center in the field of basic and clinical research.” The BIH will be established in 2015 by the state of Berlin as a public corporation and it will combine the research of the Charité and the MDC, one of 18 research institutions of the Helmholtz Association. The MDC employs more than 1,600 people from 57 countries and works with a budget of more than 70 million Euros per year. The goal is that the cooperative venture with the Charité will harness the strengths and expertise of both partners and significantly advance health research not only in Germany but also on an international level. It will focus on an interdisciplinary approach. For research of the BIH in the coming years, extensive technology platforms are being setup.

“Based on its excellence in interdisciplinary and transnational cooperation, the cluster HealthCapital Berlin- Brandenburg is generating innovations which are to benefit patients as soon as possible,” says director BioTOP Berlin-Brandenburg and cluster manager HealthCapital, Dr. Kai Bindseil. “The application spectrum for biotechnology is constantly increasing. While biotech has concentrated on developing new medicine and diagnostics in recent years, we are now moving on to new markets due to intelligent interconnections with branches like information and communication technology.”

To enforce cooperation at the interface of biotech and IT, Berlin brings together IT and biotech science and industry to develop interdisciplinary projects for innovative IT-supported healthcare. One example is the project “IT-Future of Medicine (ITFoM). The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics is leading in the project. 60 institutions and companies have joined forces to develop computer models by which personalized “virtual patients” will be derived from the molecular, physiological, anatomic and environmental data of every individual patient. The goal is to develop optimal concepts with minimal side effects.

Public support remains an important factor for financing new products because only few companies have access to venture capital funding. A study by Fleischhauer, Hoyer & Partner has shown that venture capital has increased compared to the crises. With 70 million Euros most of the money was invested in biotech. Investments in medtech were also high with 66 million Euros. The study shows that the Berlin-Brandenburg area ranks third (Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia rank first and second) in regional distribution of all investment. According to the latest BioTOP Report, public funds worth up to 42 million Euros are provided by the federal states for fixed-asset investments and new product developments. The leverage effect generated a further 45 million in private investment. The federal government and the European Union provide additional double-figure million Euro funding.

For start-ups, the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), leading investor in innovative start-ups, has created a new fund worth more than 300 million Euros. Among the investors are Altana, BASF and Robert Bosch.

From Invention To Innovation In Bavaria

“Success through synergies” is the motto of the Bavarian cluster initiatives. To assist entrepreneurs in the starting up and expanding of biotech, Bavaria has set up three agencies under the cluster Biotechnology Bavaria: BioM is responsible for greater Munich, BioMed Würzburg is located in the north of Bavaria and BioPark Regensburg GmbH is responsible for biotech in the core of the state. Bavaria is home to over 320 biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

The cluster in the greater Munich area is home to around 200 companies. 19,000 employees work in the Munich Biotech region. With two universities, two universities of Applied Sciences, the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Neurobiology and Psychiatry and the Helmholtz Research Center for Environmental Health, the region offers an excellent environment for innovation. These institutes include, for example, the Center for Nanosciences, which is one of the world’s leaders in the development and application of nanobiologies. The Life Sciences Campus in Martinsried forms the core of Munich’s Biotech region. The agency “Invest in Bavaria” states: “The campus is home to nearly half of the region’s Biotechs.”

IZB – Biotech Incubator Martinsried Bavaria

The focus of this area is on “red biotechnology,” particularly on diagnostics and therapeutics. The region is dominated by small and medium-sized companies, but eight corporations are listed on the stock exchange, among them MorphoSys.

Freising, located just a few minutes north of Munich, is home of the Weihenstephan campus. It is one of Europe’s major centers of green biotechnologies and has its own incubation center.

In 2012, BioM announced that the Bavarian Ministry of Economics granted four groups of young academics in the field of biosystems research. The subsidies by the state mount up to 1.5 million Euros for each team of young academics. The duration for the grant is five years. This lays the cornerstone for a new research network in the field of molecular biosystems (BioSysNet) that is being established within the framework of a new strategy called “Aufbruch Bayern.” The four young academics that lead the research groups have previously worked in Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and in the U.S. The goal of BioSysNet is to further strengthen Bavaria’s competitive situation in molecular biosystems.

BioSysNet is part of a Bavarian research center for molecular biosystems and thus profits from the subsidies by the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts and is being supported by “Aufbruch Bayern.” The total subsidies amount to 18.1 million Euros.

Bavaria’s north attracts entrepreneurs in the field of biotechnology and medical technology with its Innovation and Start-up Center for Biotechnology and Biomedicine. The Würzburg region is the largest entrepreneurship center in the district of Lower Franconia. The project “Life Sciences in Würzburg” has been established to provide consultancy services and to promote start-ups.

A third hub for biotechnology in Bavaria is in the middle of the state, in Regensburg. Back in 1998 the BioPark Regensburg GmbH was founded. The industrial park was supported by the State of Bavaria and built directly on the university campus at a total cost of 42 million Euros. The park has been expanded in 2001, 2006 and 2011 and now offers 18,000 square meters of laboratory, office and storage space for companies and institutes. Currently, 36 leaseholders and 550 employees have chosen the BioPark. The Regensburg region is home of 47 companies with more than 3,145 employees, 900 of them working in the core area of biotechnology. This makes the Regensburg area the second top biotech region in Bavaria.

The specialties of the university of Applied Sciences in Regensburg are fluorescent bioanalytics, molecular diagnostics, biofunctional surfaces, sensors and applied biomedicine.

In January, BioPark Regensburg GmbH announced that a new center for biomedical engineering will be established in the area. The “Regensburg Center of Biomedical Engineering” (RCBE) will move into interdisciplinary lab facilities in Regensburg’s BioPark. The aim of the new center is to bundle biomedical, medical, IT and engineering competencies and make use of the interfaces.

It comes as no surprise that Regensburg bundles its competencies in interdisciplinary research. For four years the University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg has offered classes in “Medical Information Technology.” Since 2011, “Biomedical Engineering” is a course of studies. Graduates are qualified to work at the interface of medicine and IT, or engineering, respectively. The RCBE will now support and bundle research competencies in these fields. Its focus will be on biomechanics, e-health and equipment technology for medical engineering.

Collectively, companies in Bavaria have performed well in the past years. Employment figures rose slightly by two percent. Bavaria’s 166 small and medium-sized core biotech companies employed a record-setting 4,000-plus  people in the state. Since 2006, employment in these companies has grown by 30 percent. 126 of the 166 small and medium-sized companies are located in the greater Munich area. Core biotech companies account for 10,300 in Bavaria, a plus of 300 employees at Roche, Penzberg, which is remarkable. Adding pharma to this count brings employment in the sector to well over 20,000 people.

There were four newly established companies and among the most recent openings of international subsidiaries are three US-biotech companies and one Japanese pharmaceutical company. LabPMM, San Diego California, opened its German diagnostics Laboratory and Myriad Genetics, Salt Lake City, Utah, set up its central European laboratory in a new building in Martinsried.

Bavaria was countrywide the only state in the past year to attract foreign companies for greenfield development. Bavaria was able to chalk up about 70 million Euros of external biotech funding for Germany in 2011. Numbers for 2012 are not available yet, but it can be estimated that external funding will be higher after a rather meager year. At the same time, revenues of Bavarian biotech companies went up to a new record of more than 510 million Euros.

In 2010, the Munich Biotech Region along with Bavaria’s Medical Valley Nuremberg were winners of the Leading Edge Cluster competition by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Until March 2015, the main research and development strategy for several projects in the Munich area will push personalized medicine. Like the cluster CI3 in Hessen which got the same award only two years later in 2012, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research contributes 40 million Euros for the cluster. The Munich Biotech region received another 60 million Euros by the Bavarian ministry and industry partners.

Next to this, a number of Bavarian biotech companies receive grants by the European Union for their research and development projects. One example is the EUROCALIN Consortium, which includes ten companies, for example Pieris AG in Freising. Over the last 15 years, Roche has invested more than 2 billion Euros for their location in Penzberg to develop and produce therapeutic proteins. In the last two years alone, they invested more than 350 million Euros in new plants for production of therapeutics and diagnostics in Penzberg.

Belgium: Beehive Of Biotech

In Belgium, Flanders has specialized in plant biotechnology, whereas Wallonia has focused on health biotechnologies and medical technologies. Most biotech companies in Belgium are located in the northern part of the country, Flanders. Approximately 17 percent of the companies are in the Capital region, and Wallonia is home to around 34 percent of the companies.

More than 15 percent of the European biopharmaceutical exports come from Belgium. The country is said to be the largest exporter in pharmaceutical goods. A quarter of the world’s vaccines are produced in Belgium. As the world’s second largest vaccine producer, the company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK Biologicals) in Rixensart, southeast of Brussels, contributes to a great deal to this. Approximately 30,000 people work in the biotech sector.

Biotech in the three parts of Belgium is organized in special associations. Flander’s association is called “FlandersBio,” the association in the Capital Region is called “Brussels Life Tech” and Wallonia’s association is “BioWin.” Flanders in the North looks back to a strong tradition of biotechnology that is centered around the university towns of Gent, Mechelen and Leuven. Flanders is home to more than 120 biotech companies, most of which belong to the health and green biotechnologies sectors.

Brussels is home to mostly young biotech companies. Although the region covers not even one percent of the country’s territory, it represents more than 15 percent of the biotech activity in Belgium. Most companies in the capital work in medical biotech.

The same holds true for companies in Wallonia. Since 2005, the regional government of Wallonia supports biotechnologies with the so-called “Marshall Plan.” Setting out from this action plan, the Walloon government has updated and optimized its priorities via a “Marshall Plan 2.Green.” It has been endowed with a budget of 2.75 billion Euros for the period 2009 to 2014. 1.15 billion Euros are alternative funding.

One of the most important regional clusters is the “BioWin” life science network. 27 research and development projects are being funded within the cluster. “BioWin is establishing Wallonia as a world leader in various areas of cutting-edge technology, such as biopharmacy, cell therapy, radiopharmacy, diagnostics, biotechnological products for research and industry, bioinformatics and the processing of complex data,” says Frédérick Druck, communication and international relations director at BioWin.

The cluster has 510 members with 116 businesses and around 80 percent of its members are small and medium-sized companies. 400 research units employ about 11,000 researchers from five academic centers of excellence. With 14,300 employees and a turnover of 4.4 billion Euros, the health sector is key to the economy of Wallonia.

Of the 27 projects that have been funded as a result of the Marshall Plan, five have been completed. Druck says: “In the coming years, we will create 1,200 new jobs.” He adds: “With the help of the cluster we have made a big step in excellence in technologies.” One outcome of this is that 51 patents connected to the projects have been submitted and seven new products have been launched on the market. “We see that five new businesses have been set up,” Druck adds. “Now that there is a network there is a real dynamic.”

Internationalization is key to BioWin in order to strengthen its global competitiveness. Therefore, WAL-Dx/BioWin, the Walloon in vitro diagnostic network and its partner, EuroMediag, the diagnostic cluster of EuroBioMed, the health cluster for the PACA and Languedoc-Roussillon regions (France) joined forces to create EDCA, the European Diagnostic Cluster Alliance. The network already includes nine clusters and represents 400 companies and 40 universities across Europe.

“It was also important for us to create new technological platforms,” Druck says. MaSTherCell, Wallonia’s first technological platform dedicated to the clinical and commercial production of cell therapy products for third parties is a case in point. Realized in 2011, it helped create 20 new jobs. By 2014, 35 jobs will be created and 50 new jobs are predicted by 2017.

“In Wallonia, the universities in Brussels, Charleroi and Liège are hotspots for research,” says Druck. In total, 14 universities and several other research facilities add to Belgium’s great research experience. Flanders and Wallonia have five universities each and four schools are located in the Brussels area. On a regular basis, Belgium’s universities rank among the top 25, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Leuven University, for example, has specialized on medicine, cell biology and gene therapy. Gent University, by contrast, focuses on biomedicine and plant genetics. Hasselt University is known for its expertise in autoimmune diseases.

The financial situation for biotech companies in Belgium is favorable. “For the last eight months we note that very small companies have found 60 million Euros private capital at venture capital funds,” says Frédérick Druck. The website reports that Belgium is Europe’s leader with regard to venture capital.

One recent investment was made by the biopharmaceutical company Union Chimique Belge (UCB). The company inaugurated a new biotechnology pilot facility at the Braine-l’Alleud site of UCB in September 2012. The site operates a research and production facility employing 1,500 people. The biopharmaceutical facility was constructed with an investment of 65 million Euros. Approximately 100 new jobs will be created. With the opening of the pilot biotech center, UCB is gearing up to reinforce its biotech activity through industry and academia collaboration. It is among the first plants in Belgium to produce cell-culture-based therapeutic proteins. The plant is a milestone in the development of new biological medicines and molecular development.

Luxembourg: Europe’s Solid Rock

“[Luxembourg has] a solid foundation to generate future economic diversification and growth,” says Dr. Thomas Dentzer, Head of Life Sciences Sector Development and Luxembourg BioHealth cluster manager. As the competitiveness of a country is more and more dependent on effective innovation networks involving private and public sectors, Luxembourg has implemented various initiatives in order to strengthen the research and development and innovation potential of companies and to reinforce links with public research organizations and academia.

Luxembourg’s House of BioHealth

“The Luxembourg Cluster Initiative, launched by the Luxembourg government, actively encourages networking between the private and the public sectors,” explains Dentzer. Healthcare and biotechnology are among the key technologies that have been identified as being important for the future sustainable development of the Luxembourg economy. Luxembourg’s research and development and innovation policy brings together biotech with other networks, such as eco-innovation-technologies or IT.

The Luxembourg BioHealth Cluster brings together public and private stakeholders whose activities are related to health science and technologies in Luxembourg. “It aims to foster partnerships and collaborations that favor innovative projects, thereby reinforcing and capitalizing on the national strategy developed to achieve scientific excellence in molecular medicine,” says Dentzer.

Luxembourg is strong in biomedical research. “The trends in Luxembourg, also due to the focus on personalized medicine, are going in the direction of computational biology and bioinformatics, using the latest IT-solutions to investigate complex processes,” adds Dentzer. The medical field is taking advantage of Luxembourg’s IT infrastructure and its expertise in data security.

Among the most important research facilities in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are the Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL), the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) and, most recently, the House of Biohealth, a new life science incubator.

The mission of IBBL is to work with the people of Luxembourg to provide high quality specimens and data, catalyze partnerships and support research. To accomplish its aims IBBL will, for example, support the four priority research programs in the personalized medicine initiative (cancer, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and normal population cohort). The LCSB, by contrast, is accelerating biomedical research by closing the link between systems biology and medical research. Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease, metabolomics and disease network analysis are in the focus of LCSB’s research.

Luxembourg’s most recent research facility is the House of Biohealth. The construction of the new life sciences incubator was officially launched in  November 2012 by the Secretary of Economy and Foreign Trade, Etienne Schneider. It aims to facilitate the transformation of research results into marketable products and services, and it is expected to receive its first tenants in the beginning of 2014. It will be built in the vicinity of the future city of sciences in Esch-Belval. Dentzer says: “This unique facility will offer office space as well as laboratories providing the necessary infrastructure for the creation and development of start-ups as well as already established companies in the fields of biotech, cleantech and ICT.” Within 10,000 square meters of laboratory space, the building is expected to host 500 to 700 researchers.

The building is a joint project of the Luxembourg Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade, the ZARE Park for economic activities in Esch-sur-Alzette and private investors.

The Luxembourg government has developed financial aids for companies involved in research and development. The Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade, for example, targets small enterprises or small private research organizations established in Luxembourg which were created less than six years before the aid is granted and which either will, in the foreseeable future, develop new products, processes or services, which involve a significant risk of technical or industrial failure or which have used at least 15 percent of their operating expenses for research and development over the least one of the three years preceding the granting of the aid, or over the current year. All of the enterprise’s expenses are eligible. This aid can only be awarded once and it cannot exceed one million Euros. Financial aids for new innovative businesses are, for example start-up loans or equipment loans offered by the Société Nationale de Crédit et d’Investissement. To support intellectual property rights, Luxembourg offers an 80 percent tax exemption to income from patents, trademarks, design, models and software copyrights or domain names. Capital gains generated on intellectual property will be exempt up to 80 percent. Plus, in 2009, net wealth tax was abolished on qualifying intellectual property.

Biotech company WaferGen Biosystems, Inc. set up its European headquarters in Luxembourg in 2010. The Luxembourg government provided the company with significant support towards increasing its research and development activities and raising its profile in Europe. WaferGen is working in partnership with the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg and maintains offices in the business incubator Luxembourg Technoport. WaferGen is an emerging leader in the development, manufacture, and sale of state-of-the-art systems for genome analysis for the life science and pharmaceutical industries.

Another company that installed its European Headquarter in Luxembourg is Neo Medical Systems. The company collaborates with Luxinnovation and the BioHealth cluster. Founder Francois Scalais submitted a business plan to the 1,2,3,GO programme, which selected the company as a laureate in the 2012 round. With a prototype of a system that provides 3D laparoscopic images in operating rooms, Neo Medical Systems is currently preparing to participate in the Seed4Start initiative to bring in additional financing. Scalais explains: “Luxembourg is great for us.”

 Austria: Connecting East And West

The total revenue in biotech in Austria accounts for approximately 3 billion Euros. The vast majority is generated by only 36 large companies like Boehringer Ingelheim, Sandoz or Sanochemia that have 5,800 employees. In 2010, the research strength of these companies was as high as 107 percent. Innovation hubs are in Tirol, Upper Austria and Styria. The most important innovation hub for biotech, however, is Austria’s capital region, Vienna. Every second biotech company in Austria is based in Vienna.

The cluster LISAvienna connects more than 400 companies, 99 of which are core biotech companies, and 22 research facilities. 9,000 life scientists work in Vienna.

Austria is known for its research funding. In 2011, Austria raised the research rate/premium from eight to 10 percent for expenses in research and development. Companies that invest in innovation get the premium in cash.

“Two national funding agencies, AWS and FFG, fund pre-seed formations of companies with 200,000 Euros”, says Susanne Locker. She is a project manager in the LISAvienna cluster management. “AWS and FFG fund young high-tech-start-ups with one million Euro seed-financing.” The research funding company FFG supports innovative projects financially.

One central funding initiative is the Competence Center for Excellent Technologies (COMET). It aims to strengthen cooperation between industry and academia. During its run duration from 2006 to 2019, 1.5 billion Euros will be invested in industry-oriented research; a great part of this will go to life sciences.

One of Austria’s focus areas is cancer research. The competence center Oncotyrol in Innsbruck has a research volume of 37.5 million Euros until 2015. In 2012, the EU-project OPTATO was started to develop new strategies against an incurable bone marrow tumor. It has a research volume of four million Euros.

Also, the institute of molecular pathology (IMP) that is based at the Campus Vienna Biocenter, enjoys an excellent reputation. More than 200 researchers from all over the world work here. Boehringer Ingelheim invests more than 160 million Euros per year for cancer research in Vienna.

Among the most important research facilities next to IMP and Oncotyrol are the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), the Austrian Center for Industrial Biotechnology (acib) and the Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering (RCPE) in Graz.

The RCPE was founded in 2008 in the context of the funding program COMET. RCPE’s CEO Johannes Khinast says: “With our special research focus, corporations like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Novartis, sanofi-aventis, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Abbott or Merck like to partner with us. We work together with 10 renowned research facilities. There are only two comparable non-university research institutes in the world.”

In 2012, pharma-giant Baxter announced it will build a 30 million Euros production facility in Vienna. The company is planning to launch the operating site at the end of 2014. In 2011, Baxter invested approximately 47 million Euros in production sites in Austria. In 2012, the pharmaceutical corporation invested 100 million Euros. In total, the company employs 4,100 people in Austria. Baxter employs 900 people in Vienna and Orth in the field of research and development. Three out of four scientists who work for Baxter around the globe are thus based in Austria. The country is Baxter’s largest site in the world.

In 2012, Austria’s investment agency ABA was able to attract 201 foreign companies across all sectors to start their business or relocate to Austria. They invested 282.4 million Euros. 2,385 new jobs were created, which is an increase of 31 percent, compared to 2011.

One of 11 life science companies that invested in Austria in 2012 is biolitec AG. The German company develops medical laser systems and fiber optics. Biolitec CEO Dr. Wolfgang Neuberger says: “The infrastructure, funding options and flexible group taxation were crucial for our decision to relocate our headquarters to Vienna.”

Texas Biotech Out Of The Labs, Into The Market

In the U.S., the race is on to move promising biotech initiatives out of labs and into commercial production.

In the Lone Star State, a University of Texas spinoff company has pulled in $2 million to test a new technique for culturing non-embryonic stem cells. According to a regulatory filing, StemBioSys raised at least $2 million of a $3.5 million equity offering. CEO Dr. Steven Davis told the San Antonio Business Journal late last year (when the company began raising the round) that it would fund research projects to validate the quality of the stem cells generated by the company’s technology.

StemBioSys is developing XC-marrow ECM, a propriety three-dimensional culture for growing mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow, adipose tissue and umbilical cord blood. These immature cells have multiple potential uses in research and therapeutics because they can self-renew and mature into a variety of cell types. Stem cell therapies are being studied as a repair mechanism for tissues all over the body, from the heart to the brain to the knees.

The company says its three-dimensional extracellular matrix can grow cells quicker than conventional media while retaining stem cell properties and may help overcome key obstacles in creating stem cell therapies. The technology was developed by Dr. Xiao-Dong Chen, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the company’s chief scientific officer, and licensed from UT.

Although it’s only available for research purposes now, this kind of technology could have therapeutic applications down the line. “If this research transfers successfully to clinical application in humans, we could establish personal stem cell banks,” Chen said. “We would collect a small number of older stem cells from patients, put those into our young microenvironment to rescue them–increasing their number and quality–then deliver them back into the patient.”

The company has struck a deal with GenCure, an affiliate of the nonprofit South Texas Blood & Tissue Center, to receive mononuclear cells from clinical grade umbilical-cord blood that it uses for R&D purposes. It was founded in 2010 in San Antonio, Texas and has received previous funding from the Texas Technology Development Center’s McDermott Pre-Seed Fund.

Currently, there are more than 160 Austin-area companies with over 8,200 employees operating in the areas of Biotech, Diagnostics, Medical Device, CRO/IRB, Pharma, Biosecurity and Agribio, among others. Texas is one of the leading biotech states in the country, with 3,400 companies and an estimated economic impact of $75 billion.

As relatively young industries in Austin, life science and biotechnology companies enjoy unique successes, with strong growth projected in the areas of biologics/biotech and medical device/diagnostics. Here’s a breakdown of the leading sectors:

• Medical device/diagnostics (40 percent)
• Biologics/biotech (20 percent)
• Contract Research Organizations (20 percent)
• Pharmaceuticals (10 percent)
• Other (11 percent)

Molecular Biotech Center Opens In Salt Lake City

The University of Utah has developed a well-deserved reputation for its research and business innovation, a reputation now enhanced by a new high-tech facility that could promises a financial return as well.

Leaders from the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative in 2012 dedicated the James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building—a $130-million, 208,000-square-foot research facility where scientists, physicians and engineers will collaborate to create new advances in the biotech field.

“The technology that is developed here is going to be a multidisciplinary …cross-pollination of ideas,” said Dinesh Patel, chairman of the USTAR Governing Authority, as reported by KSL.com. Located midway between the engineering and medical areas of campus, the new research building will facilitate increased interaction among faculty and student researchers,

Up to three additional buildings are planned to expand the university’s biotech center.

Financial support for the facility came from $100 million in state bonding and the balance from private donations, including $15 million from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and $1.25 million from Micron Technology. Construction of the project began in April 2009 and was completed in December 2011. Tenants started moving in last month.

According to the KSL.com report, researchers at the new facility will have the ability to perform “dry” nano (fabrication) for silicon chips, etc., as well as “wet” nano—for use in biomedical devices. The facility also boasts precision equipment, including a $3 million confocal microscope for florescent imaging of cellular processes. Nanofabrication is the design and manufacture of devices with dimensions measured in nanometers. One nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter—less than the diameter of a human hair. The process is of interest to computer engineers because it could open the door to super-high-density microprocessors and memory chips that could one day store a data bit in a single atom.

Since its inception in 2007, USTAR has helped produce more than 300 invention disclosures and patent filings, along with 44 start-up companies or industry partnerships, according to a program statement.

USTAR collaborates with the University of Utah and Utah State University to create world-class research teams in strategic innovation development areas. Highly regarded faculty members, supported by teams of top researchers, lead the teams.

The infrastructure and multidisciplinary nature of the new Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building and at the related facility at Utah State University will likely help draw bigger research grants to Utah.

“To successfully win big federal and industry grants takes more complex, collaborative teams of researchers,” Patel told KSL.com. “The physical and intellectual infrastructure this building represents has already helped the U. of U. win a $20 million advanced materials grant.”

The new facility houses the Brain Institute, Nano Institute of Utah and Department of Bioengineering, according to USTAR spokesman Michael O’Malley.

Thus far, the USTAR program has recruited 32 principle researchers to Utah from such prestigious institutions as Harvard, MIT and UCLA. As of Dec. 2011, the researchers have generated nearly $80 million in grants since 2007, with more than $81 million in research proposals pending.

NBAF Bio-Defense Lab Moves Forward In Manhattan, KS

In Kansas, state leaders are celebrating recent progress in the region’s largest biotech project: the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), in Manhattan, KS.

The federal Department of Homeland Security signed a formal land transfer agreement with the state to move ahead with NBAF.

“While there is much more work to be done, signing of the land transfer agreement is a good step forward in securing the future health, wealth and security of our nation,” Gov. Sam Brownback said in a news release. “It demonstrates DHS’ continued commitment to completing the NBAF in Manhattan. Kansas stands ready to partner with DHS to move this important national security priority forward.”

Rendering of the National Bio- and Agro- Defense Facility in Kansas

DHS will acquire about 46 acres of land near the north end of Kansas State University for the lab. The transfer clears the way for construction to begin, and a groundbreaking later this year.

NBAF scientists will research animal and human diseases and develop cures and vaccines to counter them. According to the news release, DHS already has invested more than $125 million in the lab, which is expected to cost $650 million. The state has committed $105 million dollars of matching funds for the facility and $35 million dollars of research funding. The project is expected to have a $3.5 billion economic boon to the state in its first 20 years, including 757 construction jobs and 326 permanent positions.

NBAF researchers would study animal-related diseases—including foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever, African swine fever, Nipah virus, Japanese Encephalitis, Rift Valley fever and contagious bovine pleuropneuomonia—and develop vaccines and treatments. The facility would be run jointly by Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“This was the next step we have all been waiting for and moves us further down the construction timeline,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts. “We will continue to monitor each step in the process to ensure NBAF remains a top national security priority.”

VC Funds Flowing Into Florida Bio Initiatives

The bioscience industry in Florida is on the rise in terms of new companies and venture capital flowing into businesses, according to BioFlorida, an industry trade organization.

Venture funding for the industry in 2012, for example, rose 19 percent over 2011, to $103.5 million, according to a BioFlorida release. That was the best year for venture capital in the industry since 2007. Plus, the amount of deals rose from 15 in 2011 to 19 in 2012.

The amount of biotech start-up companies in the sector is growing, too. BioFlorida reports that tally is up 13.5 percent since the first quarter of 2012.

The statewide data comes from a University of Florida Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator report. “The new data is evidence of a strong, innovative and sustainable bioscience business climate here in Florida,” says David Day, assistant vice president of the University of Florida Office of Technology Licensing and the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator.

“Not only is Florida experiencing growth in the number of biotechnology businesses, we are also seeing a continued increase in venture capital investments—demonstration of investor confidence in our biotechnology start-ups and breakthrough research,” Day added.

Naples-based biotechnology firm Kirax is planning a new high-rise headquarters. “My goal is to continue to expand Kirax in Naples,” said Edmundo Muniz, president and CEO of Kirax, which develops pharmaceuticals, in an interview with the Naples Daily News. “You will see a big tall building in Naples with the word ‘Kirax’ across the top.”

Southwest Florida is playing catch-up with other regions of the state in developing a biotech cluster. Of the 219 biotechnology companies based in Florida, seven of them are located in Southwest Florida, according to Florida BioDatabase. That puts the region sixth out of the state’s eight regions in terms of numbers of biotech companies, tied with Northeast Florida and behind the Panhandle and Central Florida, according to the database.

Florida experienced a biotech boom from 2006 through 2011, with the number of companies growing by 42 percent compared to just 5 percent nationwide, the university’s Florida BioPulse report shows. More than 10 percent of the nation’s biotech companies call Florida home.

The report gives much of the credit to then-Gov. Jeb Bush, who pushed a controversial $310 million incentive package through the state Legislature to lure the Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County, which threw in another $187 million for the first phase of construction.

The institute specializes in biomedical research. It opened in 2009. Scripps “opened up the dam” for biotech in Florida, said Patti Breedlove, associate director of UF’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator.

“That was a pivotal moment,” she said. “People stopped laughing about the possibilities of biotech in Florida.”

Getting Southwest Florida a larger share of the biotechnology pie isn’t “on our radar now,” said Michael Wynn, co-chairman of The Partnership for Collier’s Future Economy, an arm of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.

He said he sees a “huge potential” for attracting biotechnology firms when the county is ready to redirect its focus there, citing the region’s quality of life and the plethora of CEOs that live here and whose connections with the biotech world could be tapped.

In Estero, Florida Gulf Coast University’s fledgling biotechnology program has graduated 40 students, and is setting its sights on creating a master’s and doctorate degree program, said Takashi Ueda, an associate professor of biology and the biotechnology program leader. A 241-acre research park, dubbed Innovation Hub, is planned to break ground at FGCU in early 2013 with a focus on renewable energy sources, including biotech.

Roche Breaks Ground On Indy Learning Center

Late last year, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard joined Roche Diagnostics President and CEO Jack Phillips as well as other Roche executives and community leaders to break ground on the company’s new Learning and Development Center. The center is the first element of a $300 million site transformation investment that was announced in June 2012. The city of Indianapolis and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Roche tax abatements, tax credits and training grants.

“Roche has been an important part of our life sciences heritage for nearly 50 years now, and this expansion signals an important commitment to the region,” said Ballard.

“Central Indiana has been our home since 1964 and we are here to stay,” said Jack Phillips, president and CEO of Roche Diagnostics, adding that the company’s history and growth in the region is due in part to the community’s outstanding workforce and partnerships with the state and city that have enhanced job creation.

The capital investments at Roche’s North American headquarters on the northeast side of Indianapolis will support the company’s growing diagnostics and diabetes care businesses.  The new Learning and Development Center will host the training of more than 1,500 customers from across the nation each year.

“As a key piece of our North American Headquarters, the new Learning and Development Center will serve as a hub and gateway for worldwide operations,” said Phillips. “We felt that it was important for the building to reflect our global influence, right here in Indianapolis.”

Mississippi Medical Center Unveils New Research Hub

Construction of a new research building, which will include space for start-up biotechnology companies, is commencing this year at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Fondren. UMC leaders plan to spend $35 million initially on the eight-story shell of the Cancer and Biomedical Science Research Center and plan to finish the ground, first and second-floor interiors of the 220,000 square-foot building. That work should take about 18 months. Contractors would complete additional floors as funds become available. “We have very limited amounts of research space right now,” said Dr. John Hall, UMMC associate vice chancellor for research. “This building will help us recruit scientists, expand our research centers and institutes, and develop the Biotechnology Research Park at UMMC.”

Biotech company incubator space will occupy about 25,000 square feet on one floor. That will mark the first phase of a long-term plan to construct the Mississippi Biotechnology Research Park. The building also will house laboratory animal facilities and UMMC Cancer Institute labs. Hall said administrators will survey space needs of departments and research centers. UMMC leaders put plans on hold last year for a Mississippi Biotechnology Research Park project at the old farmers market when Congress swore off federally targeted funds, known as earmarks. The project already had received nearly $20 million in federal earmarks, and UMMC had taken ownership of the farmer’s market property, located at West Street and Woodrow Wilson Avenue. With little likelihood of further federal support, administrators opted to include biotech incubator space in the Cancer and Biomedical Science Research Center, which allowed use of the $20 million for the on-campus building.

Frederick County, MD: U.S. Biotech Research Hub

Frederick County, Maryland, is the prime location for bioscience companies to establish and continue their dynamic success in a global marketplace. Already home to more than 70 cutting edge bioscience companies, Frederick County has the second largest cluster of bioscience companies in Maryland.

In fact, Maryland is home to the highest concentration of federal biotech research facilities, anchored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Taken together, Maryland’s bioscience research complex is conservatively estimated to represent nearly $8 billion in research and development expenditures annually, third in total size only to California and New Jersey. The state also has a leadership position in academic R&D per capita, led by Johns Hopkins University, the top recipient of NIH funding in the U.S.

MedImmune is completing work on its $600-million Frederick Manufacturing Center, which will employ 250; when it ramps up to full production the center is expected to be the largest bulk biotech manufacturing facility in the United States.

Frederick County’s burgeoning biotech cluster continues to expand exponentially. A good example is MedImmune, now part of AstraZeneca, which recently completed its $250-million, 337,000- square-foot Frederick Manufacturing Center, creating 200 new jobs and bringing total employment to 450. The Frederick facility will be one of the biggest bulk biotech manufacturing facilities in the country. The workforce at the $600-million facility is expected to double when the plant ramps up to full production. MedImmune also has expanded its headquarters complex in Gaithersburg, investing $200 million and increasing the lab staff to 600.

Qiagen, a Netherlands-based supplier of sample and assay technologies in the life sciences sector, expanded its North American headquarters and manufacturing center in Germantown. The $2-million, four-phase expansion is adding about 90 new jobs. Qiagen employs more than 3,500 globally, including nearly 700 across its three locations in Maryland at Germantown, Gaithersburg and Frederick.

Lonza Bioscience invested $26 million in an expansion of its cell production and office space in Walkersville, adding 80 employees bringing total employment to 480. Additionally, Life Technologies undertook a $5 million expansion of their life sciences manufacturing distribution center.

Many new and expanding bioscience companies choose Frederick County as their preferred business location for the following reasons:

• Business Friendly Environment
• No business personal property tax
• Competitive tax structure
• Fast Track permitting assistance
• Start-up companies benefit from a high-tech incubator at Frederick Innovative Technology Center

Recent bioscience expansions also include the Fort Detrick National Interagency Biodefense Campus; new laboratories and office for Interagency Biodefense R&D and new facilities at the SAIC-Frederick, Inc./National Cancer Institute.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is seeking to spur biotech development with his $100-million InvestMaryland program, which would provide tax credits to insurance companies so they could invest in technology companies, including biotech research facilities. The state also is well under way with its Bio 2020 plan to invest at least $1.3 billion in biotech across the decade. The 15-year-old Maryland Venture Fund, which makes direct investments in technology and life sciences early-stage companies, has invested $25 million and returned more than double that investment.

Under the Bio 2020 plan, the Maryland Biotechnology Center was established within the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development to coordinate a host of state, university and private sector initiatives to support biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship in Maryland. The Center works closely with university technology transfer offices and commercialization programs such as the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and the University of Maryland’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program to foster and fund collaborative initiatives between bioscience enterprises, universities, and federal labs. In certain qualifying cases, the Center can supplement funding of industry-university and industry-federal labs research partnerships.

The Center has created a BioEntreprenuer Resources Program which assists entrepreneurs in leveraging available public and private capital. The Center also works closely with the University of Maryland School of Law’s Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center (MIPLRC). The MIPLRC provides free legal services on the subjects of business and intellectual property to start-up bioscience enterprises.

Higher-Ed Partnering For Progress In Minnesota

A biotechnology partnership has been initiated between Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) and the University of Minnesota. In addition to the transferability of the Biotechnology program in its entirety, the partnership ensures graduates of MCTC’s Biotechnology program with grade point averages of 3.5 or higher will be enrolled at the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota, one of the University’s most prestigious schools.

“Minnesota has earned its place in the medical device industry by nurturing scientists,” said LifeScience Alley President and CEO Dale Wahlstrom. “This partnership moves students between two strong academic programs to graduate studies or careers in Minnesota’s famed bioscience sector.”

The first cohort within the new biotechnology partnership includes seven MCTC students. MCTC’s Biotechnology faculty leader Rekha Ganaganur noted all seven of the students have undergraduate research or internship experiences and some have obtained jobs in the bioscience industry. She applauded the vision of Robert Elde, the dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences. “Dean Elde knows Minnesotans want colleges to collaborate to enhance the biotechnology workforce of the future.” Ganaganur is grateful for the LifeScience Alley membership for serving on the MCTC advisory group which made the partnership possible.

Elde and Ganaganur pledged their programs to support students who start their academic careers at community colleges. MCTC program participants can consider themselves University students as they grow their academic careers. “The partnership is a positive example of a collaborative effort that will help ensure a pathway for students to the top scientific careers in our state,” said MCTC President Phil Davis. “I am extremely impressed with the caliber of students enrolled in our programs, and MCTC welcomes this as a way to encourage academic success.”

New Jersey New Incentives For On-The-Job Training

NJ Gov. Chris Christie Administration recently announced that financial hiring incentives are now available to employers through the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) if they hire and train former pharmaceutical industry employees. Employers willing to hire displaced pharmaceutical workers may reduce the cost to train new employees under this new on-the-job training program, which will reimburse each employer up to 50 to 90 percent of a new hire’s salary for up to six months and a maximum of $14,000.

“As a former business owner, I fully understand the expense associated with training new employees.  This is an opportunity for employers to bring on new staff and offset their training costs. This program benefits employers and employees and will help stimulate job growth here in New Jersey,” said Dept. of LWD Commissioner Harold J. Wirths.

New Jersey employers from all industries are eligible to participate in this program, which is commonly known as an On-the-Job-Training program, as long as the prospective new hires are among the former pharmaceutical industry workers covered under a National Emergency Grant first issued to the LWD by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2010.

The program is managed in collaboration with the state’s Life Sciences Talent Network at BioNJ. It is designed to help workers who were displaced from the pharmaceutical industry due to the economic downturn by providing job training and assistance in finding new employment. New Jersey applied for the grant to keep the state’s pharmaceutical talent in the state and maintain New Jersey’s economic competitiveness. The workers covered under the grant include those who were displaced from approved locations of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoffman-La Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., and Pfizer companies.

Under the new On-the-Job Training component, employers will not incur any fees and LWD or the Life Sciences Talent Network staff will pre-screen applicants for eligibility or will assist in qualifying candidates prior to the actual hire. New Jersey also is paving the way for increased cooperation between the state’s bio-pharma industry and academia.

Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno recently announced the formation of a new Council on Innovation to advise the NJ Partnership for Action on how industry and academia can better work together to improve New Jersey’s economy and attract more federal funding. Creation of the Council is among 15 recommendations in a report released by New Jersey Policy Research Organization (NJPRO) and Innovation NJ. In addition, Lt. Governor Guadagno announced Secretary of Higher Education Rochelle Hendricks as the newest member of the NJ Partnership for Action. The report recommends policy changes that would create an “innovation ecosystem,” making it easier for industry and academia to collaborate on new ideas and inventions.

Other recommendations include cutting red tape by creating standard agreements governing intellectual property rights and collaboration between entities. Identifying areas of expertise within New Jersey’s colleges and universities that can form the basis for Centers of Excellence. Designation of a single center of excellence for a topic would provide guidance to interested parties searching for a research partner; having a chief administrator at each college and university who will serve as a one-stop shop coordinator for businesses to connect with university information and resources.

Secretary Hendricks emphasized the importance of aligning businesses and academic institutions to grow New Jersey’s economy, attract more federal funds and bring innovative products and ideas to market.

“We need to be efficient and effective to win the competition to market commercial ideas and products,” she said. “Many of our academic institutions are already doing ground-breaking research. With improved collaboration among state agencies, colleges and businesses, that research can be directly connected with the economy, helping our institutions continue to compete on a national and global scale.”

Kentucky Spreads Seed Capital To Bio Start-Ups

Kentucky is offering a host of programs geared to jumpstart biotech start-ups. Commonwealth Seed Capital, LLC (CSC) is an independent fund that makes debt or equity investments in early-stage Kentucky business entities to facilitate the commercialization of innovative ideas and technologies. Investments are typically made in these specified innovation areas: health and human development; information technology and communications; bioscience; environmental and energy technologies; and materials science and advanced manufacturing.  CSC invests in companies that have a significant Kentucky presence, the prospect for substantial growth and the potential to generate an appropriate rate of return.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development also offers a matching funds program to facilitate biotech start-ups. The Cabinet will match, on a competitive basis, Phase 1 and Phase 2 federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards received by Kentucky high-tech small businesses and those willing to become Kentucky-based businesses.

This includes matching Phase 1 federal awards up to $150,000 to support the exploration of the technical merit or feasibility of an idea or technology. The program also provides up to $500,000 of federal Phase 2 awards, which support full-scale research and development.

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