Bioscience

Maryland has key competitive advantages in the nationwide race to be big in bioscience but must get better at translating its research into business successes, speakers at a gathering of politicians, business leaders and educators said yesterday. State Comptroller Peter Franchot, who organized the Maryland Life Sciences Summit in Columbia, used the opportunity to call for more state funding of startup companies, for more of the state's pension fund to be invested in biotechnology and for more collaboration among government, academia and industry.

Profectus BioSciences Inc., a Baltimore-based biotechnology company, said Wednesday that it won a $5.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support the development of a vaccine for a pair of contagious and deadly viruses that the U.S. government has classified as biological and agricultural threats. The viruses are found in other parts of the world. The viruses — Nipah and Hendra — are closely related and cause respiratory and encephalitic disease in humans and animals.

Gaithersburg-based MedImmune Inc., one of the nation's few profitable biotechnology companies, said yesterday that it plans to buy U.S. Bioscience Inc. so it can move into the oncology market.The proposed stock swap deal values U.S. Bioscience of West Conshohocken, Pa., at $492 million, or $16.50 a share. U.S. Bioscience shares rose $2.625 to $14.125 yesterday. MedImmune rose $7.1875 to $109.25."This acquisition further solidifies MedImmune's commitment to the field of oncology," said Wayne Hockmeyer, chief executive officer at MedImmune.

A new report being released today calls on the Baltimore region to rethink economic development, pointing to a worrying trend: a mounting share of low-wage jobs shutting more and more residents out of the middle class. The number of jobs in largely low-paying industries such as retail and food service grew more than 60 percent in the region between 1980 and 2007, while jobs increased 36 percent in middle-wage fields and just under 10 percent in high-wage fields, according to the Brookings Institution study.

Maryland's bioscience sector - which has set records for growth since its inception - continues to perform well as the state carves out important strengths, said a lead researcher on a new study that looks at the nation's biotechnology industry. "It's one of the few real success stories," said Walter H. Plosila, vice president of the Technology Partners Practice for Battelle, a Columbus, Ohio, nonprofit group that fosters technology innovation worldwide. Battelle has a research facility in Harford County.

The Carroll County commissioners unanimously enacted an ordinance yesterday that will allow bioscience research facilities to operate in areas zoned for agriculture. The ordinance could affect any possible expansion of Spring Valley Laboratories in Woodbine, the county's only animal research facility. The facility, on a 110-acre farm, has housed labs for breeding and testing animals since 1980. The business tests vaccines and has contracts with the National Institutes of Health and several private companies.

MedImmune Inc., the fast-growing Maryland biotechnology company, said yesterday that it has completed its purchase of U.S. Bioscience Inc. in a bid to move into the growing market for new cancer treatments.Shareholders of U.S. Bioscience, based in West Conshohocken, Pa., received 0.15 shares of Gaithersburg-based MedImmune for each U.S. Bioscience share they held.MedImmune, whose chief product is a drug to prevent a serious respiratory illness in infants, said the stock transaction had an equity value of $580 million.

Now that technology companies have established a solid base in Howard County, bringing a large number of high-paying jobs to the area, state and local economic planners are eyeing bioscience as another way to boost the local economy. About 20 bioscience companies are in the county - nearly 10 percent of the state total - and a couple of them have been wooed from Boston, a powerhouse of biotechnology. Planners say Howard has potential for more. "They're on our target list because of their positive impact on the county," said Richard W. Story, executive director of the Howard County Economic Development Authority.

The Baltimore region has generated a relatively low number of private-sector bioscience jobs for a city with two major research universities, but a three-pronged approach could help change that while ensuring that low-skilled workers also benefit from the sector's growth, according to a new report. The report, released this week, was commissioned by the city's Workforce Investment Board to create a plan for preparing area workers for careers in bioscience. The long-term planning comes as the city presses to expand a sector that now employs about 11,000 with initiatives such as a large business park for biotechnology companies adjacent to the Johns Hopkins University medical complex on the city's east side.

Maryland's once nascent bioscience industry has emerged as a fast-expanding force in the state's economic growth, employing more than 40,000 statewide at 200-plus companies and institutions and paying wages averaging almost $50,000 annually, a new report on the industry has found.The report also says that investment in Maryland companies has become significant in generating new wealth in the state. That includes $900 million in venture capital and other investments in privately held Maryland bioscience companies, and 15 biotechnology investors whose holdings in Maryland companies are each worth more than $1 million.

Wearing a purple-and-white tie and a gray suit, Feike Sijbesma, head of Dutch multinational conglomerate Royal DSM, was whisked from meeting to meeting at the Columbia headquarters of Martek Biosciences Corp. on a recent weekday. He had spoken to the entire company, a couple of hundred Martek employees. He had met with top executives. Somewhere in between, he squeezed in lunch. Several times before, Sijbesma had visited Martek during the 15 or so years the two companies had done business together.

From the BaltTech blog: Royal DSM N.V., a Dutch life and materials sciences company, today made a $1.1 billion cash offer for Martek Biosciences Corp. of Columbia in a deal that represents a 35 percent premium over its stock. Board members from both companies have approved the acquisition of Martek, a company that was founded in Maryland 25 years ago by a group of scientists who spun off from the Martin Marietta Corp. The purchase is based on a 35 percent premium of Martek's closing price of $23.36 on Monday.

Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed a tax credit plan Tuesday intended to spur investment in Maryland's technology and life sciences industries that could be worth up to $100 million. Under O'Malley's plan, the state would raise investment capital through auctioned tax credits to insurance companies in Maryland, which would purchase the breaks for redemption in 2015 or beyond, state officials said. O'Malley, who recently launched his re-election campaign for governor, unveiled his proposal while speaking before a crowd of business leaders at a technology conference in Rockville.

Martek Biosciences Corp., a Columbia-based maker of infant nutritional formula supplements, said Friday it completed the acquisition of Amerifit Brands Inc., which sells consumer health and wellness products. Martek, which announced the deal Jan. 21, bought Amerifit from Charterhouse Group Inc., a New York-based private equity investment firm, for $200 million in cash. The deal was significant for Martek because it intends to develop its own line of consumer products as a way to reinvent its revenue base.

Martek Biosciences Corp., a Columbia-based maker of infant formula nutritional supplements, said Thursday it will pay $200 million for a consumer health and wellness product company that will for the first time help give their products a direct pipeline to store shelves. Martek is buying Amerifit Brands Inc. from Charterhouse Group Inc., a New York-based private equity investment firm, in a deal that is being funded with $120 million in cash reserves and the rest through loans, the companies said.

Choice Hotels unsure of future of two Haiti projects Silver Spring-based Choice Hotels International Inc. said Friday it's too soon to know whether two hotel projects planned for Haiti will move forward. Less than a week before Tuesday's earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince, the lodging company had announced plans to bring the first global hotel brand to the island in more than a decade. It had planned to open a Comfort Inn this year in the township of Jacmel and to start construction of an Ascend boutique hotel as part of a new luxury development of lodging, housing and shops, also in Jacmel.

After years of failing to attract a big pharmaceutical presence to the state - and losing the competition for a Novartis AG plant to North Carolina last summer - it's time for Maryland economic developers to shift gears in biotechnology, according to a study being released online today. The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore spent the past six months compiling data and interviewing company representatives to create the Biosciences Report, a 40-page assessment of the local industry and its growth potential (available at www.greaterbaltimore.

The city has begun work on an ambitious redevelopment plan that could dramatically transform 87 acres of East Baltimore, with a new Johns Hopkins Hospital "bioscience park" potentially anchoring the project. The initiative, north of the Johns Hopkins complex, could involve razing more than 20 blocks in a roughly 35-block area in one of the city's most blighted neighborhoods, the Middle East community, with an eye toward changing the landscape of East Baltimore. In place of desolate blocks of rowhouses, planners envision a community of mixed-income housing, new businesses and open space - a more welcoming view of the city for passengers on the Amtrak rail line that runs by the neighborhood.

Gov. Martin O'Malley named on Friday a longtime veteran of Maryland's bioscience industry to lead the Department of Business and Economic Development's efforts to increase the biotechnology and science sector in the state. Judith A. Britz, a scientist and entrepreneur with 25 years of bioscience experience, was named executive director of the Maryland Biotechnology Center, where she is expected to help the state's 400 bioscience companies grow and create new jobs. She most recently had her own consulting firm where she advised companies on therapeutic and diagnostic applications.