You asked how California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York promote the bioscience industry and recruit bioscience firms. You specifically wanted to know how much money and staff each of these states allocate for these activities and the incentives they offer to bioscience firms.

SUMMARY

The five states promote the bioscience industry in similar ways. They rely on private trade associations to assess and communicate the industry’s needs, inform the public about how the industry benefits the state, and provide technical assistance to their members.

We could not obtain data on the resources the states commit toward attracting and recruiting bioscience firms. States generally do not disclose how they identify and contact the firms they want to attract, a national biotechnology trade association spokesman stated. These initiatives usually involved high level, confidential discussions between a state’s top officials and a firm’s CEO. The National Association of State Economic Development Agencies (NASDA) tracks how much its member agencies spend on advertising, but not for bioscience or other specified purposes, Miles Freedman, NASDA’s executive director, stated.

Nor does it appear that state agencies fund national advertising campaigns designed exclusively to attract bioscience firms. Instead, they market their products and services to a broader business audience. All maintain web pages describing the states’ incentives and providing links to other public and private agencies offering different types of financial and technical assistance. The New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission’s Business Attraction and Development Department provides one-stop shopping for out-of-state businesses interested in moving to New Jersey. (The nonprofit Connecticut Economic Resource Center provides a similar service here. )

The states offer bioscience firms largely the same incentives they offer to other high technology firms. They also stimulate new research by funding new facilities, university-business research partnerships, and bioscience career programs.

But a recent report about the challenges facing California’s bioscience firms could also apply to other states:

PROMOTING BIOSCIENCE

The five states rely mainly on private bioscience trade associations to promote the industry, a practice common in most states. They rely on the associations to “coordinate the needs of … corporate members and to provide a more-or-less unified voice to which government offices can respond” (Blakely and Nishikawa, “Incubating High technology Firms: State Economic Development Strategies for Biotechnology,” Economic Development Quarterly, August 1992).

For example, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council keeps the government and the public informed about new research and its economic potential, comments on legislation affecting the industry, and supports political candidates who support its views. California’s BioBay analyzes industry trends, represents the industry’s interests before state and federal policy makers, helps its members collaborate on different projects, runs a cost-saving group purchasing program, and advises entrepreneurs about starting new businesses.

Table 1 compares the state agencies and private organizations that promote bioscience. The latter includes organizations that promote bioscience along with other high technology industries. As the Table 1 shows, Connecticut and New Jersey are the only states that devote staff resources exclusively to bioscience, but their tasks are limited to helping firms obtain state assistance and, in Connecticut’s case, secure licenses and permits.

Table 1: Selected States’ Organizations with Bioscience Promotion Responsibilities

RECRUITING BIOSCIENCE FIRMS

State officials keep their strategies for recruiting bioscience firms close to their vest, opined Patrick Kelly, the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Government Relations Officer. Kelly knew of no studies comparing state recruitment programs, and we could find none either.

None of the five states we studied appear to run advertising campaigns designed exclusively to lure bioscience firms. Most state high technology agencies are reluctant to fund costly national advertising campaigns, Jim Denn, the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) stated. NYSTAR allocates no funds for national advertising campaigns targeting bioscience or other types of high technology firms. Instead, it markets its products and services to a broad business audience through web sites, brochures, newsletters, and other printed materials.

Other states take a similar approach, using web sites and brochures to highlight the state’s low business taxes, skilled workforce, good roads, financial incentives, and other factors that make the state a good place to run a business. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) uses the web to advertise its products and services, but also relies on private trade associations to promote the state and its programs, NJEDA official Glenn Phillips explained. Its senior officials personally reinforce the message by serving on the associations’ boards.

State and privately funded bioscience research centers indirectly attract bioscience firms when they publicize their research successes, Denn explained. Bioscience and other types of high technology firms seem to locate near major university research centers where business and university researchers can share ideas and facilities.

DIRECT ASSISTANCE

Bioscience Business Incentives

As Table 2 shows, the states offer bioscience firms similar types of incentives, including technical assistance, venture capital, and R&D tax credits. They also provide low rent space and business support services for early stage bioscience firms (i. e. , incubators). But few, such as CII’s Bioscience Facilities Fund, target these incentives exclusively at bioscience firms.

Table 2: Selected States Incentives for Bioscience Firms

Source: Laboratories of Innovation: State Bioscience Initiatives 2004, Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and SSTI, June 2004

Bioscience Strategic Investments

Besides offering incentives to individual bioscience firms, the states invest in the infrastructure needed to stimulate and sustain the industry’s development. As Table 3 shows, the states fund new research facilities, establish academic degree and certificate programs addressing the sector’s workforce needs, and encourage professors and business researchers to collaborate on research that could result in new products or techniques. Private developers have developed research parks in California and Massachusetts, while state agencies or universities have done so in the other states.

Table 3: Bioscience Strategic Investments

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Source: Laboratories of Innovation: State Bioscience Initiatives 2004, Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and SSTI, June 2004

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