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The nation’s smallest state has big ambitions for its budding biotech industry, as evidenced by the opening late last month of a $54 million life sciences center at the University of Rhode Island.
With the state’s unemployment level running at a 30-year high of 10 percent — second worst in the nation, after Michigan — making such multimillion-dollar investments in academic research and education is seen as vital to the economic future health of the Ocean State.
“The state is focused on a collaborative effort to create a new knowledge-based economy substantially grounded in health and life sciences, including biotechnology, biomanufacturing and biopharmaceuticals,” said Jeff Seemann, dean of URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. As part of that effort, the Kingston-based URI Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences, a 140,000-square-foot facility, will house both classrooms and cutting-edge research laboratories. The center was officially opened on Jan. 26, having been funded largely with a state bond issue. Additional work is under way for a new $65 million pharmacy college slated for opening in 2011, which will also sponsor research, said Seemann.
This is just part of an overall approach, said one biotech executive. “We’re a small state with a lot of good ideas and we need to help the smaller businesses to get to market,” said Bill Donohue, COO of Warren-based Pro-Act Biotech Inc., which makes microbial treatment technologies for animal waste. The new URI biotech center will help train a life sciences work force, which is necessary. However, to succeed in biotech, the state must find innovative ways of attracting funding for startups, said Donohue. This could include creating a small grant program for startups that in turn would offer a percentage of their future profits to the state.
State business advocates view R.I. as already having enormous potential, however. The state has a “vibrant life sciences community” that will be enhanced by a variety of ongoing academic, government, and private initiatives, said Michael Saul, interim executive director of Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. (RIEDC). Saul estimated there are already 1,400 biotech-related companies doing business in Rhode Island and employing 35,000 people. Some of the more high-profile companies include Providence-based vaccine startup EpiVax Inc., and Warwick-based Concordia Medical, which makes fiber-based medical implants.
The RIEDC is working with Brown University, the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council, and other institutions to help sponsor new companies, he said. Moreover, the U.S. Congress is expected to create a stimulus package, and with that, “we’re hoping to capitalize to accelerate these kinds of programs,” said Saul.
“Rhode Island and Providence can absolutely be an innovation hotspot,” said Saul Kaplan, founder and chairman of the Business Innovation Factory, a Providence-based nonprofit. It’s well located between New York and Boston and has a high concentration of colleges and students. “It’s unique, and its small geography makes it easier for innovators to connect. The biotech center at URI is a sign of progress,” he said.
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