Denver Business Journal -- Colorado isn’t recognized as a major biotech hub on the scale of California, Massachusetts or the research triangle of North Carolina. But that could change if policy leaders and researchers in the state have their way.Lawmakers voted this year to dedicate a chunk of the state’s limited economic-development resources to build a stronger biotech sector.
The Colorado Legislature and Gov. Bill Ritter approved a $26.5 million incentive package to provide grants for the state’s fledgling biotech industry in the next five years.
It’s not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but observers hope the funding will provide a boost for small bioscience companies with big ideas.
Ritter told onlookers at a signing ceremony at the state Capitol last April that the investment will help Colorado’s economy as part of his business agenda.
“This is one of the pillars of our strategy,” Ritter said.
The governor compared biotechnology to aerospace and alternative energy as industries that will contribute economically and also help improve the state’s quality of life with good-paying jobs and by attracting an educated work force.
Denise Brown, executive director of the Colorado BioScience Association, said she believes the state’s seed money, combined with other encouraging signs in the sector, demonstrate that Colorado’s biotech industry is coming of age.
One of the more notable developments in recent months is the return of Nobel Laureate Tom Cech to the college town of Boulder.
A professor at the University of Colorado, Cech’s main research area is the process of transcription in the nucleus of cells — including ground-breaking work uncovering how the genetic code of DNA is transcribed into RNA.
In 2000, Cech was named president of the Howard Hughes Institute in Maryland. He continued to supervise his world-renowned laboratory in Boulder, but announced in April he would resign from the institute and return to CU to teach and continue research.
Cech’s return is good for the bioscience industry, Brown said.
Several new Colorado bioscience companies, including Biodesix Inc., Sierra Neuropharmaceuticals Inc., Taligen Therapeutics Inc. and ARCA Biopharma, received investment rounds in the last five quarters totaling more than $240 million.
Another significant development is the creation of new research initiatives in cancer and infectious disease at Colorado State University. CSU is based in Fort Collins, about 65 miles north of Denver.
Brown hopes more out-of-state venture capital will accelerate new companies coming out of CU and CSU, and increase manufacturing jobs in the state.
But she worries that increased regulatory requirements for clinical trials by the Food and Drug Administration will significantly add to the costs of research and development of new drugs and possibly slow down progress.
She’s also concerned that the sector may grow too fast.
“In Colorado, we need to watch out for continued growth in jobs and a disconnect between the pipeline of people [or lack thereof] in our educational institutions and available, high-paying jobs,” Brown said.
Earlier this year, medical device manufacturer Gambro BCT Inc. announced it would change its name to CaridianBCT Inc. to help establish the manufacturer as an independent, American-based company with a global presence.
Specializing in blood component technology used by blood banks, hospitals and clinical and biotech researchers, CaridianBCT employs 2,300 people worldwide and 1,800 in its headquarters west of Denver in the suburb of Lakewood.
CaridianBCT has added about 300 employees since the beginning of 2008, a company spokeswoman said.
According to an analysis of data compiled by Battelle, a research-and-development company based in Columbus, Ohio, Colorado employs 10,780 people in jobs related to the bioscience industry.
