Center to boost bioscience industry

By Dan Chapman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia has the biotech brains, but not the biotech brawn -- particularly the money -- to bring great ideas to market.

The Georgia Bioscience Commercialization Center (GBCC) was unveiled Monday with the goal of transforming pharmaceutical, medical-device and alternative-energy startups into patent-churning, job-generating companies for one of the 21st century’s most lucrative industries.

While life-science CEOs and nonprofit officials acknowledged Georgia’s second-tier ranking, they insisted the entrepreneur-friendly center will help bridge the gap between Georgia and more developed biotech states such as North Carolina, California and Massachusetts.

Bryan White, a former pharmaceutical salesman with an entrepreneurial dream, has already tapped the center’s collective wisdom to launch apothe-Linx, an online apothecary connecting doctors with drug companies.

“This group has already saved me a lot of time and given me so much incredible advice, and they’ve probably saved me thousands of dollars that, being a startup, I don’t have,” White said. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without them.”

Physically, there’s not much to the commercialization center. It’s a largely online (www.georgiabcc.com) resource center started with $40,000 from the Georgia Research Alliance and Georgia Bio, nonprofits that boost the state’s life-science industry. Georgia Bio staff will run the organization.

The center’s “faculty,” though, is its strength. Twenty-five bioscience experts -- CEOs of large and small pharmaceutical companies, economic development officials, attorneys, accountants -- will counsel startups free of charge.

They’ll evaluate business plans, identify lawyers and financiers, advise on clinical trials and help entrepreneurs maneuver the regulatory maze. Their altruism comes from a desire to help a homegrown industry.

“Traditionally, we’ve not had the state government really identifying bioscience as a priority industry," said Dr. Laurence Downey, a GBCC co-founder and former CEO of Solvay Pharmaceuticals in Marietta. "But the [GBCC] is recognition from the state and the city of Atlanta that this is an industry we want to support.”

In 2007, the state’s life-sciences industry was responsible for nearly 18,000 jobs and $16 billion in sales, according to UGA’s Selig Center for Economic Growth.

Between 2006 and 2008, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, Georgia raised $148 million in biotech venture capital, money critical to turn inventions into profits. Georgia ranked No. 14 in private funds. California, the No. 1 state, received $6 billion.

The Georgia Research Alliance and other nonprofits offer “seed” money to help startups grow. The state also provides various tax credits for research and development, as well as for companies that pay better-than-average salaries such as the bioscience industry.

But Georgia’s reputation as a life-science destination is hampered by the Legislature’s periodic threats to limit embryonic stem cell research. Georgia is also the only state that won’t let state-administered pension funds be used as venture capital.

“In terms of bioscience investment, we’ve made great strides, but we need to do more,” Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said during the GBCC’s unveiling at pharmaceutical giant UCB’s North American headquarters in Smyrna. “In order to be a scientific Mecca, it would certainly require a lot more investment.”

North Carolina, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania run successful life-science commercialization centers, often with state money. The centers also provide management expertise, something scientists and entrepreneurs don’t always possess.

White and business partner Chris Chapman have already gleaned invaluable advice from Georgia’s commercialization gurus. The “faculty” advised them to seek financing from a private equity firm, rather than a slew of small investors, to raise the $500,000 needed to launch their apothecary.

“Atlanta has so much to offer. There are a lot of resources here," White said. "So it would be cool to build a business in Atlanta that creates a lot of jobs.”