Biotech Industry

MEDIMMUNE INC., a Gaithersburg developer of drugs, vaccines and treatments, had just what the doctor ordered for Maryland: a $50 million manufacturing plant in Frederick County with a payroll that could reach $10 million. This not only is a boost for the Glendening administration's economic development efforts, it sends a strong message to local biotechnology firms that they no longer have to go out of state to set up production plants.This is an important message. While the Interstate 270 corridor in particular is loaded with biotech research firms, there's no manufacturing component.

Looking for some signposts for what might unfold in the year ahead for the biotechnology industry? The best signals are probably behind us, say industry experts.Specifically, they say, the last three or four months say a lot about what's probably around the bend in 1996.That period was flush with mergers, acquisition, alliances and licensing deals between some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and some of the nation's struggling biotechnology boutiques. All of that business activity is a clear sign, say industry analysts, that the big drug companies now are convinced that there is strong future profit potential in a young, high-risk industry focused on innovation.

From his office at the Ft. Holabird Industrial Park in southeast Baltimore, Dr. Craig Smith watches with anticipation as a $4 million, cutting-edge biotechnology laboratory takes shape down the hall.The new facility is where scientists at his fledgling biotechnology company, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, will work to develop breakthrough treatments for Parkinson's Disease, brain cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. It represents just the latest of the millions of dollars the company has invested, including a new $2 million production facility, in the hope of future profits.

In a sign the local biotech industry might be maturing, a Baltimore company has agreed to manufacture small quantities of an anti-cancer drug for a Virginia company.Collaborations have been rare among local biotech companies, but Cel-Sci Corp., a publicly traded biotech company in Alexandria, signed a deal with Chesapeake Biological Laboratories yesterday."There is starting to be enough of a critical mass here to support some collaborations," said Geert Kersten, Cel-Sci chief operating officer.

In a sign the local biotech industry might be maturing, a Baltimore company has agreed to manufacture small quantities of an anti-cancer drug for a Virginia company.Collaborations have been rare among local biotech companies, but Cel-Sci Corp., a publicly traded biotech company in Alexandria, signed a deal with Chesapeake Biological Laboratories yesterday."There is starting to be enough of a critical mass here to support some collaborations," said Geert Kersten, Cel-Sci chief operating officer.

Biotech companies and researchers walked away from the Maryland General Assembly this week having pocketed $50 million and seen old tax codes rewritten to fit the emergingindustry in Maryland.The biggest chunk was $40.4 million to renovate a downtown Baltimore warehouse for basic academic research and small companies. But the General Assembly devoted about 15 percent of its 1994 capital budget to promote technology development.Supporters of the legislation and the budget items said they represented legislators' view that technology, both information and biotech, would form the basis of the economy in the future.

What the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee wanted from Maryland's economic development leaders yesterday was a forward-looking plan for growing the state's nascent biotechnology industry.What they got was a summary of past efforts and a bit of cheerleading, according to Sen. John A. Cade, an Anne Arundel County Republican."The purpose of a strategic plan is to find out where . . . we're going to be in five years, where Maryland wants to be and what resources are necessary to get us there.

Martek Biosciences Corp., a Columbia biotechnology company, raised almost $14 million in an initial public offering yesterday, far less than the company had originally hoped.It was a victory nonetheless for a company with no earnings and a stock market tepid toward the biotech industry in general, according to analysts and industry executives."The fact that they got it done is pretty good," said Prudential Securities analyst Joseph Edelman."Actually we're quite pleased," said Martek Chief Financial Officer Steve Dubin.

Words of comfort for biotech industryLast week was a hard one for biotechnology stocks, which were down about 20 percent after disappointing news from two major companies, Synergen Inc. and Amgen Inc. But Stelios Papadopoulos, managing director of investment banking at PaineWebber Inc. and a biotech specialist, doesn't believe the long-term effect will be catastrophic.While public capital markets for biotech companies appear to have been shut tight, biotech companies have raised an unprecedented $7 billion in the past two years, he says.

The biotechnology industry in the United States appears to be heading toward a collision with most of the world over the regulation of genetically altered food products.The U.S. industry praises a recent U.S. government decision minimizing regulation, but the European Community is preparing a directive on "novel foods," the regulatory requirements for which could hamper exports of such items to the EC."I'm not aware of the EC proposal, but there is worry that this [regulatory issue] could be a trade weapon . . . . The politicizing of an issue [could be used]

A few months after General Motors made its last van at the 70-year-old Broening Highway plant, a seed for Maryland's new economy sprouted across town in West Baltimore. On a cold morning in October 2005, the governor and mayor heralded the opening of a biopark built by the University of Maryland, Baltimore - a place where researchers would pursue breakthroughs in treatments for diabetes, cancer and heart disease. One of the park's first tenants was a Japanese medical firm. Officials toasted the partnership with sake.

Three days after Gov. Martin O'Malley announced a $1.1 billion initiative for the biotechnology industry, Comptroller Peter Franchot announced yesterday that he would advocate that the state pension fund to invest about $1 billion in life sciences and "green" technology such as renewable energy and environmentally sensitive building materials. Franchot, who is vice chairman of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, said he would recommend that about $500 million be invested in the biotechnology industry, particularly in Maryland.

Aquaculturists growing blue crabs that might help restore the Chesapeake Bay and fish that could help feed the world. Doctors and scientists collaborating on vaccines that will help future generations live without the fear of AIDS or Alzheimer's. Skilled workers crafting contact lenses with micro-detectors that measure blood sugar and medication levels, eliminating the need for repeat blood tests. Maryland's burgeoning life sciences industry brings more than just economic development. As these examples show, it offers opportunities to benefit all humanity by curing illness, cleaning the environment and providing food for millions.

Digene Corp. announced yesterday that Daryl J. Faulkner, a biotech industry veteran, will take over as chief executive next month. Faulkner replaces the Gaithersburg company's current CEO, Evan L. Jones, who surprised colleagues and industry insiders this summer by detailing plans to retire just as the business was taking off. "There's a little sadness on my part; it's been incredible building Digene," Jones, 50, said yesterday. He took over the struggling biotechnology company in July 1990, when it had just been downsized to about 30 people, had no cash to speak of and sales of less than $1 million.

The teenagers filed into the Ellicott City laboratory, slapped on safety goggles, whipped out notebooks and peered expectantly at their instructor, who promptly delivered directions that sounded as if they were in a foreign language. Teacher Cindy Coffman tossed around technical terms - such as "GFP samples," "caustic reagents" and "isolated proteins" - like confetti, eventually declaring that something needed to be vortexed "right away!" And the dutiful group soon did, with barely so much as a quizzical glance.

PHILADELPHIA'S evening arrived, Austria brought out its ballroom dancers. Puerto Rico carted in a rum bar and band. Florida flaunted a cheese platter and its governor, Jeb Bush. And Maryland relied on fluorescent martinis and kitsch - yellow, floppy Frisbees reading "Maryland: Where Bioscience is Contagious!" along with a grab bag full of faux viruses and plush, stuffed crabs. What crabs and viruses had to do with one another, no one was asking. The organizers had spent all day on their feet, game faces on, trying to attract attention to their particular corners of the sprawling conference room in Philadelphia, where the BIO 2005 Annual International Convention was wrapping up last month.

WHY DO WE wonder what fate will befall the state's fledgling biotech industry? Its self-styled biggest booster, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., apparently can't decide whether he is in favor of a current bill to fund stem cell research. Some boost. The bill would direct the state to spend $25 million per year on research using donated eggs that had been harvested as part of women's use of in vitro fertilization. The money would come from the cigarette restitution fund. The bill also would set into Maryland law a ban on human cloning; current law has no position on the matter.

NATIONAL Afghan deaths draw less note In the shadow of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, the deaths of detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan have drawn less attention and lesser punishments. [Page 1a Conservative Christmas campaign Christian conservatives, contending that secularists and nonbelievers have tried to obliterate the the religious meaning of Christmas, are targeting stores and organizations that they believe are diminishing holiday's import. [Page 7a WORLD U.S. food aid low An increase in emergency food demands, a soaring deficit and budget restrictions are making it impossible for the United States to fulfill its global agricultural aid commitments.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a series of new regulations aimed at reducing the environmental risk of corn genetically engineered to produce its own insecticide. The decision Friday, awaited by farmers, environmentalists and the biotech industry, was viewed by many as an acknowledgment by the agency of the rising concern over the safety of biotech crops. The corn became a rallying point for environmentalists and opponents of genetic engineering in May when a Cornell University study found that the corn's pollen could kill monarch butterfly caterpillars in the laboratory.

MEDIMMUNE INC., a Gaithersburg developer of drugs, vaccines and treatments, had just what the doctor ordered for Maryland: a $50 million manufacturing plant in Frederick County with a payroll that could reach $10 million. This not only is a boost for the Glendening administration's economic development efforts, it sends a strong message to local biotechnology firms that they no longer have to go out of state to set up production plants.This is an important message. While the Interstate 270 corridor in particular is loaded with biotech research firms, there's no manufacturing component.