SubscribeThe six candidate states and the criteria used to judge them were written in various colors on a dry-eraser board.
Biotechnology entrepreneur Anthony Laughrey outlined the attributes he needed in a location for his new start-up company, KBI BioPharma Inc., a contract process developer and manufacturer of biotech drugs.
Excellent universities and community colleges. Supporting infrastructure of government and private agencies. Extensive workforce training programs. Specialized construction and engineering companies. High quality of life. They were all important to a successful biomanufacturing operation.
KBI’s brain trust checked the boxes over and over again under one state.
North Carolina.
“None of the other six [states] measured up when all of these factors were considered,” Laughrey said.
The vetting of states has paid off. Since selecting North Carolina and receiving a $1 million loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in 2003, KBI BioPharma, based in Durham, has grown from one employee to 32.
“The fact North Carolina has invested in biotechnology for 25 years was a big reason for coming here compared to the other states,” Laughrey said.
The state’s investments in biotechnology have come via the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the world’s first government-sponsored organization devoted to biotechnology development. The non-profit corporation, created in 1984, has formed working partnerships with dozens of public and private organizations and channeled more than $160 million of state investment into biotechnology research, business and education.
The long-term investment has paid handsome dividends to the state. North Carolina’s life science industry has grown to include 171 biotechnology companies, 77 contract research organizations, and 46 device and life-science related companies, collectively employing about 40,000 people. In addition, more than 200 companies provide products and services to the industry, accounting for thousands more jobs.
About one-third of the state’s biotechnology companies are large, multinational operations such as Biogen Idec, Diosynth, Novozymes, Syngenta and GlaxoSmithKline. The rest are small to mid-sized companies that have either moved to the state or sprung from its universities or larger companies.
The sustained growth of biotechnology in North Carolina has made the state a worldwide leader in biotechnology. Ernst and Young’s 2005 report on the industry proclaims North Carolina the third leading biotechnology state based on the number of companies. Also, a 2004 study by the Milken Institute projects that North Carolina will lead the nation in percentage growth of new biopharmaceutical jobs by 2014.
As was envisioned more than two decades ago by the state leaders who created the Biotechnology Center, biotechnology is bringing high-paying jobs to North Carolina at a time when many people are losing traditional manufacturing jobs. A constituent asked Gov. Mike Easley, “What is biotechnology, anyway?” His reply: “Better than $20 an hour.”
In the fast-growing biomanufacturing sector, which makes drugs, vaccines, enzymes, vitamins and food additives, entry-level bioprocess technicians typically earn between $25,000 and $30,000 and jump to $50,000 after five years. The average employee at a North Carolina biopharmaceutical manufacturing business makes $70,567, according to the state Employment Security Commission.
To ensure that high-paying biotech jobs keep coming to North Carolina, Gov. Easley in 2003 commissioned the Biotechnology Center to craft New Jobs Across North Carolina: A Strategic Plan for Growing the Economy Statewide through Biotechnology. The plan, developed with the input of 120 leaders across the state, contains 54 strategic recommendations to guide future state investments in biotechnology development, including three immediate priorities:
- Recruiting and expanding biomanufacturing companies
- Spreading the opportunities and benefits of biotechnology to all areas of the state
- Creating and attracting biotechnology start-up companies.
To accelerate the growth of its biomanufacturing industry, now numbering 16 plants and 30 related plants, North Carolina is focusing on preparing a trained work force. A Biotechnology Center survey indicated that up to 3,000 new employees will be needed each year.
Golden LEAF, a nonprofit foundation created in 1999 to invest part of North Carolina’s federal tobacco litigation settlement money in economic development projects, has committed $60 million to a new statewide program to train workers for biomanufacturing and pharmaceutical-manufacturing jobs.
North Carolina State University in Raleigh will use its portion of the Golden LEAF money to build a $36 million Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, scheduled to open in January 2007. Plans call for a 100,000-square-foot plant to provide hands-on experience for students in a pilot-scale, Good-Manufacturing-Practices environment similar to an industrial setting.
North Carolina Central University in Durham will receive $19.1 million for the Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE), set to open in January 2007. BRITE will include a 65,000-square-foot laboratory and classroom building for research, teaching and training at all levels in biotechnology and biomanufacturing.
The North Carolina Community College System will receive $9.4 million for BioNetwork, six centers statewide that will train workers in bioprocessing, pharmaceuticals and bio-agriculture and place students into the North Carolina State and North Carolina Central university programs for additional training.
The coordinated training program is being implemented by the North Carolina Biomanufacturing and Pharmaceutical Training Consortium, a partnership of the University of North Carolina system, the North Carolina Community College System, biomanufacturing companies and the Biotechnology Center.
The curriculum will address training across all the relevant scientific, technical and engineering disciplines at all levels from certificate or associate degree to Ph.D. The goal is to train 2,000 to 3,000 employees each year.
In addition to these training initiatives, the Biotechnology Center has worked with industry and the community colleges to develop BioWork© for training entry level bioprocess technicians. The 128-hour course, taught by the community colleges, covers areas including Good Manufacturing Practices and manufacturing technology. The course is offered to the public and used by companies for in-house training of new hires and current workers.
“We’re determined that North Carolina will have the world’s best-trained work force for biomanufacturing,” said Dr. Leslie Alexandre, the Biotechnology Center’s president and CEO.
With a trained workforce a key part of North Carolina’s traveling sales pitch, the Biotechnology Center and the North Carolina Department of Commerce are embarking on a new Retention, Expansion and Attraction Plan (REAP)to bring new biomanufacturing plants to the state and expand the ones here.
The Plan’s aim is to build on the state’s industrial recruitment successes that have netted four biopharmaceutical manufacturers in recent years – Diosynth, Biogen Idec, KBI BioPharma and Merck and Co.
Another potent tool for industrial recruitment of biomanufacturing firms is being developed. The General Assembly has set up, but not yet funded, the North Carolina Life Sciences Revenue Bond Authority to provide loan guarantees to help finance the construction of new or expanded biomanufacturing plants, which typically cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to build.
A benefit of targeting the recruitment of biomanufacturing companies is that these plants are more likely than research and development-oriented companies to locate in semi-rural areas of the state. That fits squarely with the Biotechnology Center’s strategic goal of developing biotechnology beyond the technology-rich Research Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and the Research Triangle Park.
The Biotechnology Center is planning to open two new satellite offices to serve greater Charlotte and Eastern North Carolina. The new offices will join existing satellite offices serving the Piedmont Triad and Western North Carolina to bring the Biotechnology Center’s expertise and programs closer to all areas of the state. Local advisory councils are helping identify biotechnology opportunities, resources and strategies in the four regions.
To achieve its other strategic goal of helping create and attract small companies, the Biotechnology Center provides low-interest loans to young companies long on promise and potential but short on cash. The funding comes at a critical time when the companies struggle to obtain financing.
To date, the Biotechnology Center has invested about $14.5 million in about 90 companies, which have gone on to raise more than $1 billion in other investments.
For example, Trimeris Inc., a company spun out of Duke University Medical Center, was able to use a $250,000 Biotechnology Center loan to attract venture capital, which later led to a $33 million public stock offering. Today the company employs about 135 people and sells a life-extending drug, Fuzeon, for the treatment of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Tony Laughrey of KBI BioPharma can relate to Trimeris’ success story. KBI BioPharma used the Biotechnology Center’s $1 million loan to leverage $32 million in private funding. That early success has affirmed the company’s decision to locate in North Carolina.
“We knew we belonged in North Carolina,” Laughrey said. “And we are glad we are here.”