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Industry Overview

From the 2008 Battelle Report:
Technology, Talent and Capital: State BioScience Initiatives

Key Indicators of the Growth of the Biosciences in the United States:

The total employment impact, including direct, indirect, and induced jobs, of the biosciences sector is 7.5 million jobs
Academic bioscience R&D expenditures totaled $29 billion in FY 2006
U.S. higher education institutions awarded bioscience-related degrees to more than 143,000 students in the 2006 academic year
Venture capital investments in bioscience companies reached $11.6 billion in 2007
More than 82,000 bioscience-related patents were awarded between 2002 and 2007 in the United States

Key Findings: State Biosciences Initiatives are engaged in the following:

Addressing talent needs
Investing in the biosciences to address global issues
Recognizing that business climate issues vary by company size
Establishing legislative caucuses and committees focused on the biosciences
Advancing bold initiatives in the biosciences, including investments in stem cell research
Reassessing biosciences investments in light of budget realities
Continuing to address risk capital gaps
Creating new commercialization vehicles
Funding translational research in the context of existing programs

From Battelle's 2008 Michigan Biosciences Report:

During the 6 years ending in 2006, employment in the research, testing, and medical laboratories subsector in Michigan grew faster than the national average. Growth in research funding from the National Institutes of Health also exceeded the national average over the past 6 years. Total academic biosciences research expenditures were $910 million in 2006, mainly in medical and biological sciences.

Michigan ranks eighth in the number of biosciences-related degrees produced in 2006. In the past 6 years, biosciences venture capital investments rose steadily to a peak of $74 million in 2007, and a 6-year total of $269 million. The largest share of venture capital investments was in pharmaceuticals, followed by human biotechnology. The 2,225 biosciences patents issued in-state in the past 6 years were predominantly in drugs and pharmaceuticals, followed by surgical and medical instruments and biochemistry.

Recent State Initiatives
Biosciences programming through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s (MEDC’s) 21st Century Jobs Fund increased from $3.5 million in 2007 to $18.2 million in 2008, targeted at a series of academic-industrial Centers of Excellence. Among the recent biosciences projects approved by the MEDC was $3.4 million to re-use a former Pfizer facility in Holland as a biosciences incubator/commercialization center.

Since the last BIO report, the $109 million 21st Century Investment Fund, created as part of the 21st Century Jobs Fund, joined the earlier $95 million Venture Michigan Fund in making investments in venture capital funds active in Michigan. In addition to functioning as a second source of funds, the 21st Century Investment Fund may also make direct investments in venture capital deals.

At an earlier stage of investment, the State’s 12 “SmartZones”—tax-advantaged districts each equipped with university-affiliated incubation or commercialization programs—jointly launched a return-oriented Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, which by March 2008, had invested $5 million in 22 companies, many in the biosciences.

Michigan State University in Lansing was a collaborator with the University of Wisconsin in
Madison in the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, which was awarded $125 million by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2007. The Center also involves Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and three universities in Florida, Illinois, and Iowa.

Battelle is a private, non-profit organization recornized worldwide for technology development, management and commercialization.

Read the Michigan Report

From the Biotechnology Industry Organization: