Dear Mr. Carroll:
We at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and many in the biotechnology community we serve, are perplexed and dismayed by your failure to include North Carolina in Fierce Biotech's January 25 special issue, The Top Five Regions Targeting Biotech Companies.
By most credible measures, North Carolina is among the top locations in the nation and world for biotechnology activity and commitment, and is on almost every company's short list of places to consider when expanding or relocating.
North Carolina ranks No. 3 in the nation, behind only California and Massachusetts, in the number of biotechnology companies, according to Ernst & Young's 2005 survey of the industry.
North Carolina's life sciences industry now encompasses about 700 companies employing 73,000 people, according to our database of these companies. This includes 201 bioscience companies employing 26,704; 87 contract research and testing companies employing 16,327; 61 device or related life science companies employing 3,112; and 354 service and supply companies employing 27,043.
North Carolina is investing $60 million, plus yearly operational costs, in a nationally unique program to train up to 3,000 workers per year for jobs in biomanufacturing and pharmaceutical manufacturing. A highly trained workforce is a top priority for bioscience companies, and a consortium of companies, community colleges and universities is providing that in North Carolina.
North Carolina's Research Triangle region (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) ranked No. 1 in human capital and biotech work force in a 2004 Milken Institute report on America's biotech and life science clusters.
North Carolina, already a premier state for biomanufacturing and pharmaceutical manufacturing with 20,000 employees, is projected to lead the nation in percentage growth (26 percent) of biopharmaceutical jobs by 2014, according to the Milken Institute's 2004 report on the industry.
The State of North Carolina has invested $174 million in biotechnology development through the North Carolina Biotechnology Center since 1984, when the Center was founded as the world's first government-sponsored biotechnology initiative.
The North Carolina General Assembly in 2005 approved a new program that provides matching state grants of up to $100,000 to companies receiving Phase I SBIR and STTR grants. Legislators also authorized the State Treasurer to invest up to 20 percent of North Carolina's $500+ million Escheats Fund in alternative investments, including venture and seed capital funds, a potential source of seed capital for young biotechnology companies in the state.
Construction of a $1 billion, 350-acre North Carolina Research Campus has begun in Kannapolis, NC, near Charlotte, on the site of a former textile plant. The campus, announced in September 2005 by Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock, is envisioned as a major national center for research and business in nutrition, agriculture, health and biotechnology.
North Carolina is home to some of the world's leading research universities, including Duke University, East Carolina University, the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, and Wake Forest University. These universities have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in genomics and biotechnology programs.
North Carolina voters in 2000 overwhelmingly passed a $3.2 billion bond issue for improving the state's university and community college infrastructure, much of it related to the life sciences.
North Carolina has a bold strategic plan, commissioned by Governor Mike Easley and developed by the Biotechnology Center with input from 120 experts, to guide its future investments in biotechnology. New Jobs Across North Carolina: A Strategic Plan for Growing the Economy Statewide through Biotechnology includes 54 strategic recommendations.
North Carolina has a distinctive "value proposition" in biotechnology: high quality at low cost. Of the nation's top biotechnology states, North Carolina has the lowest cost of doing business, according to the 2005 Milken Institute Cost of Doing Business Index. Also, for the fourth time in the last five years, Site Selection magazine in 2005 named North Carolina as the state with the best business climate.
North Carolina's positive business climate, low costs, outstanding research universities, highly trained workforce, deep biotech infrastructure and strong State commitment to biotechnology are a winning combination for attracting life science companies to North Carolina. For example, GlaxoSmithKline is embarking on a $92 million expansion of its pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in North Carolina, creating 200 new jobs; Arysta LifeScience is relocating to North Carolina from San Francisco, bringing 65 jobs; and Merck & Co. is building a $300 million vaccine-manufacturing plant in North Carolina that will employ 200 people. More recently, the August C. Stiefel Research Institute, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stiefel Laboratories of Coral Gables, Fla., announced it will relocate its R&D facilities to North Carolina, creating 200 jobs and bringing investment of more than $50 million. And Corneal Science Corp. is relocating its Vision Pharmaceuticals manufacturing facility in Mitchell, S.D., to North Carolina.
So you can better understand and fully appreciate North Carolina's dynamic and growing life sciences community, we invite you to visit the Biotechnology Center and to be our special guest at "Biotech 2006," the 15th annual statewide conference, May 22 and 23, in Winston-Salem. You'll get to meet 1,000 or so key North Carolina biotechnology leaders. Stelios Papadopoulos, vice chairman and managing director of the New York investment banking firm SG Cowen, will give the conference keynote address on Monday evening, and Ira Flatow, NPR science correspondent and award-winning TV journalist, will also speak. More information on the conference is available at www.cednc.org/biotech.
If you can't make it to North Carolina in May, perhaps you can visit us at BIO 2006 in Chicago April 9-12. We'll have a large North Carolina Pavilion with about 50 corporate and institutional sponsors. Meantime, we encourage you to learn more about North Carolina and its highly capable life science community by visiting our Web site, www.ncbiotech.org.
Sincerely,
Leslie Alexandre
President and CEO