GAINESVILLE, Fla. — While the biotechnology industry has weakened across the U.S., Florida has seen a 21 percent jump in the number of biotech companies since 2008 and a surge in investment, according to the University of Florida.Updated numbers from the Florida BioDatabase, maintained by UF’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator in Alachua, show 29 new companies opened during the last three years for a total of 165 in Florida. Biotech companies tracked by the BioDatabase are characterized by having a true research and development core that helps fuel the innovation of new products for Florida’s growing biomed industry.
“Florida is on track to become a strong player in the biotechnology industry,” said Dr. Michael Schmitt, editor of the Florida BioDatabase. “Our state has the key ingredients for growth including a strong research base and an increasing trend in venture capital funding.”
According to recent Bloomberg News and Ernst & Young reports, the nationwide U.S. biotechnology sector lost 15 to 25 percent of public companies and 5 to 10 percent of privately held companies in the last three years.
The rate of growth in total investment funding for the biomedical industry in Florida far outpaced the national scene with investment dollars in 2010 increasing 37percent over 2009 to $158 million while life science funding growth nationwide has remained relatively flat over the past year.
Mirroring national trends, Florida’s biomedical industry is off to a strong start in 2011 with the level of investment dollars at more than $75 million in the first quarter alone representing nearly 50 percent of total funding in 2010 according to data collected for the Florida Biodatabase. Moreover, venture capital funding comprises over half this amount and consists of three deals valued at a total of $40 million.
Florida continues to show resilience in establishing itself with a true “bioscience brand” consisting of more than a dozen world-class research centers and key academic institutions including the University of Florida, named by the Milken Institute as the top performing public institution at transferring its research to the marketplace, and the Scripps Research Institute, one of the largest private, nonprofit biomedical research organizations in the world. Other significant institutes that have added to recent growth include Sanford Burnham, Torrey Pines, Max Planck, M2GEN, Miami Institute for Human Genomics, OHS Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, SRI International and Draper Labs along with key research centers at all of the major public universities in Florida.
The Florida BioDatabase (www.floridabiodatabase.com) is a freely accessible public database that tracks the biotechnology industry in Florida along a number of metrics. It follows the industry held standard of defining a biotechnology company according to the Ernst & Young guidelines that include core research and development and involve the use of modern biological techniques to develop products or services for human health care, animal health care, agricultural productivity, food processing, renewable resources, industrial manufacturing and environmental management.
The Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator is a statewide resource fostering the growth of young bioscience startup companies (www.biotech.ufl.org).
The University of Florida is one of the nation’s largest public universities. A member of the Association of American Universities, UF receives more than $678 million annually in sponsored research funding. Through its research and other activities, UF contributes more than $8.76 billion a year to Florida’s economy and is responsible for generating more than 100,000 jobs statewide. University of Florida Research; Working for Florida.