NJ Biotechnology Industry Study Sees Strong Job Growth
Biotech employment in New Jersey jumped 28 percent between 2003 and 2006, from 7,834 to 10,071 jobs, according to a just-released report by the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey and Deloitte & Touche USA.
New Jersey Biotechnology: A Robust State of Health concluded thatthose jobs led to the creation of an additional 9,300 jobs supporting the industry and another 7,600 jobs attributed to higher worker spending. In all, New Jersey’s biotechnology industry accounts for $1.7 billion in income earned by state residents, as well as $80 million gained by state and local governments in taxes.
Biotechnology companies in the Garden State spent more than $3.3 billion in goods and other services, the report also found.
WPI, WBDC Launching New Life Sciences Campus This Fall
Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Worcester Business Development Corporation will launch this fall a new life science-based campus in Worcester, Mass. Gateway Park, scheduled to open in September, is an 11-acre, mixed-use complex intended to stoke expansion of the life sciences cluster in Worcester and throughout Massachusetts.
When completed, Gateway Park will feature more than $250 million in private investment and about 750,000 square feet of R&D and office space geared to the life sciences, and is projected to create between 1,600 to 2,000 jobs. An additional a 1.7-acre parcel is available for housing and retail development.
More than $75 million has been invested to date in Gateway Park, including the cost of preserving an historically significant building, designing and constructing the WPI Life Science and Bioengineering Center, constructing a garage and surface parking lots, and building roads.
The center, which opened in April, has more than 112,000 square feet of leaseable space, 80 percent of which has been leased by WPI for its life science-related graduate research programs from four academic departments, the WPI Bioengineering Institute, and the university's corporate and professional education division. The center is the first building to open in Gateway Park
Buffalo BioSciences Announces New Economic Development Training Service
Buffalo BioSciences has launched a new training services program for economic development organizations targeting technology sector growth, called Catalyst Services. The program is designed to help organizations better reposition economies toward bioscience growth. The company will begin offering the service immediately in New York state and the Northeast, with a national and international rollout to follow.
The program will be run by Ellen Hassett, who has offered such training to the state of Maryland and other government and corporate clients.
Leading Companies Invest $1M in Illinois' Biotechnology Future
Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Astellas US, and other corporate donors have donated a combined nearly $1 million to the iBIO Institute, the educational arm of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization, toward the iBIO Propel program, designed to boost the efforts of Illinois biotechnology entrepreneurs at the Molecular Biology Research Building at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The program provides a “boot camp” educational experience for entrepreneurs, teaching them how to successfully start up their companies and introducing them to resources. The program teams entrepreneurs with experienced “coaches” or startup veterans who have taken companies through initial public offerings or major acquisitions by global firms. The coaches work with entrepreneurs before their business plans and presentations are reviewed by panels of judges.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America in Deerfield, Ill., was the lead seed fund donor with an unrestricted $250,000 gift to the iBIO Institute.