BY STEPHANIE DOYLE

Governor Jeb Bush reviews the newly-released Ernst & Young global biotechnology report (which revealed Florida breaking into the Top Ten Biotech states) at the Florida Pavilion at BIO 2006 in Chicago this spring.

Long known more for its seniors and sunshine, Florida is looking stronger than ever on the biotechnology front. The Sunshine State continues to pick up the pace in the nationwide biotech race, with the Governor as biotech Florida's top cheerleader.

Exactly where Florida will wind up on the biotech map is unknown, but one thing is clear — the state in recent months alone has gained serious momentum. Consider that:

· Florida, according to a new Ernst & Young report, has edged out Washington to make a top 10 list that ranks states by their number of biotech businesses.

· A La Jolla, Calif., research giant, The Scripps Research Institute, has already expanded to temporary facilities in Jupiter and anticipates building permanent quarters in Palm Beach County, lured to Florida through a $310 million incentive package approved by a special session of the Legislature.

· Governor Jeb Bush recently signed into law $400 million in economic-development bills that include a new medical school at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The governor also approved $30 million for universities to use toward targeted industries, including biotechnology.

· Central Florida politicians have visited La Jolla, Calif., to make the pitch to officials at another major biomedical research center there, the Burnham Institute, to move to Orlando.

· Gov. Bush recently received the BIO Governor of the Year award from the Biotechnology Industry Association, the industry's largest trade group.


Among Florida's many heavy hitters in the biotech world are Viragen, Inc., a Plantation company that specializes in protein-based drugs; Miami-based DOR BioPharma, which is addressing side effects of cancer treatments, serious gastrointestinal disorders, and biomedical countermeasures; Jupiter's Dyadic International, focused on harnessing the power of nature's gene pool for multi-billion dollar markets such as agriculture and health and beauty aids; and Boca Raton-based Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, which is developing products in its core business areas: Gram-positive bacterial infections, hepatitis, kidney disease and nicotine addiction.

Dyadic has been in South Florida since the late 1980s, when Florida was a mere speck on the biotech map. CEO Mark Emalfarb, originally from Chicago, says Southeast Florida's climate and lifestyle were what drew him initially.

"It certainly wasn't the biotech industry — it was nonexistent," he says.

But Emalfarb knew that would change.

"I felt that Jupiter was a community, even before Scripps showed up, that would be very amenable to biotech companies,'' he says. "There are good schools, and it's close to the beach."

Much like, he says, La Jolla, the Pacific Coast California town where both Scripps and Burnham are located. Emalfarb says he has had little trouble hiring seasoned veterans from across the nation.

"I was able to attract people from Boston, which is a biotech hub, and from San Francisco, which is a biotech hub, and from New Jersey, which is a pharmaceutical hub."

Emalfarb says many from the northeast have been more than willing to leave terrible commutes and ferocious winters. But along with those push factors, Florida's top leader has been a significant pull factor, he says — "You have to give Gov. Bush a lot of credit for seeing the vision."

As Gov. Bush wraps up his last year in office he continues to tout his biotech hopes and dreams at industry conventions from Chicago to San Francisco, building on past biotech company recruitments, including one of the world's largest biomedical research institutes.

In 2003, The Scripps Institute selected Palm Beach County as the location for its second major research center. The hope now is that companies will want to locate in and around the Scripps campus and that research organizations and laboratories will serve as the center of statewide university research.

During the past 22 years at Scripps' La Jolla facility and its surrounding areas, 40 biotech spin-off companies were created. One of the world's largest, nonprofit biomedical research organizations, Scripps has become internationally recognized for research into immunology, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases and synthetic vaccine development.

"With the site for Scripps settled, and with the recent success in having funding for science and research included in the results of the legislature this year, BioFlorida, biotech and related activities are slated for substantial growth in the future," Board Chairman Thomas McClain wrote recently to members of BioFlorida, the state's independent bioscience organization.

BioFlorida works with investors, private enterprise, government, academia and the financial and service sectors to further develop existing companies, launch start-up companies and attract new business to Florida.

Dyadic's Emalfarb says the Scripps move to Florida already has further enhanced the biotechnology outlook in the state. He initially met with Scripps President Dr. Richard Lerner to introduce Dyadic's C1 Host Technology, a patented protein production technology being developed for, among other things, production of therapeutic antibodies. Dyadic now is working with Scripps to advance this science, and Lerner has become the chairman of Dyadic's Scientific Advisory Board.

Other companies, including VasoGenix Pharmaceuticals, are beginning to weigh the pros and cons of a possible move to Florida. Dr. Lee Southard, CEO of VasoGenix, currently headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas is considering a move to Florida. VasoGenix is working to treat acute coronary syndrome (ACS) by developing Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide (CGRP), which is produced by the human body as a natural response to ischemic insult, or the deprivation of oxygen to heart tissue.

Southward is eying both Ft. Meyers on Florida's southwest coast, and Palm Beach County. Quaker BioVentures in Philadelphia, which long has focused on the northeast, also is eyeing Florida — raising money to invest in Southeast Florida's biotech industry.

"We want to be in an area where biotech can grow,'' Southward says. "The leadership in Florida has been as good or better as any other state, and Florida's biotech initiative seems to be fairly serious and significant. People give a lot of lip service to this industry. But Florida puts their money where their mouth is."

Southard called the Scripps expansion a "big factor" in drawing his interest to the Sunshine State. Economists hired by Gov. Bush estimate that Florida's Scripps will create 6,500 jobs, generate about $1.6 billion in additional income to Floridians and boost the state's gross domestic product by $3.2 billion in the next 15 years. South Florida was seen as an ideal location for Scripps' second campus due to the region's cluster of bioscience companies and research universities. These companies have been conducting research and producing cutting edge products during the last two decades and the research conducted at local universities, including the University of Miami's School of Medicine are world-renowned.

Another major university that is playing a role in Florida's biotech future is the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. USF has a crucial part in innovations such as the Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC), a joint economic development initiative between USF, UCF, and the University of Florida. The Corridor, which includes the service areas of the three universities, stretches from Sarasota to the Space Coast. The FHTCC mission is to attract, retain and grow high tech industry and the workforce to support it in the 23-county region.

In Central Florida, leaders are working to claim their own piece of the biotech puzzle. They lost out on Scripps, but now are trying to lure another biotech opportunity — the Burnham Institute, another California research center. In April, local leaders announced an approximately $90 million bid to draw Burnham. Should the biotech center choose Orlando, the local money would likely be paired with $250 million in state funds that would be offered to Burnham, no matter where in Florida it lands.

Orlando area officials are remaining tight-lipped about the details of the economic-development bid, which they're calling "Project Power." That's because other cities, including Port St. Lucie on Florida's Southeast coast, also are vying for Burnham. If city and county officials are successful in luring the company to Orlando, the biomedical firm would sit alongside the UCF's new medical school — just one more of the many biotech advantages the state will soon have.