Breakthrough research projects are going begging

John Carroll — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:26:23 -0400

Every year the annual meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization spurs a round of new economic development plans and big new studies on the impact of biotechnology in individual states. This year Massachusetts--which just inked a $1 billion program to help foster the industry over 10 years--commissioned a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers that showed the industry is continuing to swell even as the overall job market contracts. But the report also highlights a glaring problem for a cluster that's highly dependent on federal funds to advance the kind of cutting edge research that can spawn in biotech companies.

According to the accountants, Massachusetts gets more money from NIH on a per capita basis than any other state in the union. But ominously the overall sum involved shrunk for the first time in 2006 and was at a three-year low in 2007. And nationally NIH has failed to keep up with inflation for the last five years. Add it all up and the trend threatens the ability of young researchers to advance new projects and inspire new therapies.

One more troubling sign to report: In a survey of 147 industry executives, "only one in four survey respondents (27 percent) rated the Commonwealth's venture capital firms as strong in their "willingness to fund radically new ideas."

- check out the release for more