Editor’s Note: The following article was authored by Kent Hoover, chief of the American City Business Journals’ Washington, D.C., Bureau, who researched biotech development efforts across the country. Like a contagious virus, biotech fever is sweeping across America, leading states and municipalities to spend millions of dollars courting an industry that has never been profitable and is highly concentrated in just a few areas of the country. Officials infected with the fever often see visions of high-paying jobs and dramatic impact on economic development -- not to mention revolutionary advances in health care and agriculture. And the cure may come only after sufferers have wasted years and millions in taxpayer dollars chasing after the mirage. That’s the skeptic’s view of the economic development community’s current obsession with biotechnology. Four years ago, just 14 states had targeted biotech as a way to grow their economies. Today, 41 states are chasing the business, including Missouri, which does not rank among the top U.S. biotech hubs. In fact, Missouri, and St. Louis, do not even show up on the map.
