When MedImmune Inc. agreed to be purchased by AstraZeneca PLC over the weekend, the state was served notice that it will essentially lose its flagship biotech - the one officials have relied on for years as a selling tool to draw similar businesses.
The Gaithersburg company's profits and high-profile products (FluMist and blockbuster treatment Synagis for babies) have led governors to herald it as an industry leader, mayors to praise the jobs it provides and economic development leaders to tout MedImmune as the example all biotechs should follow.
Even though MedImmune and its 1,700 employees will remain in Maryland, the company will become a division of AstraZeneca if the $15.6 billion deal gets shareholder approval as expected later this year.
While Maryland lays claim to the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, none among its 300-plus biotechs offer the kind of success story that MedImmune achieved. That makes it tough to brag among the growing army of biotech competition out there. States like California, home to biotech grandfather Genentech Inc., and Massachusetts, where big-name Genzyme Corp. lives, have long led the way when it comes to biotech leaders.
Indeed, many states now claim biotechnology as a key industry. Dozens of states have assembled teams to attract biotech companies along with the high-paying professional jobs and the lower-paying laboratory and manufacturing work they bring.
In Maryland, two city biotechnology-focused business parks are under development, state funds have been committed to stem cell research and Gov. Martin O'Malley just created a Life Sciences Advisory Board to come up with a "strategic plan" to grow the industry.
"Our state officials have generally, as far as I can recall, always been remarkably supportive of this industry," said Wayne T. Hockmeyer, MedImmune's founder and chairman. "It's something that was always a unifying theme - it didn't matter what party they belonged to - they've always been remarkably supportive."
Larry Mahan, the bioscience director at the state's Department of Business and Economic Development, said Maryland has a lot going for it with its breadth of companies, but he acknowledged that having a clear flagship makes a difference.
"A flagship definitely helps," he said, ticking off a list of criteria: revenue generation, number of employees, depth of drug development pipelines.
