DEL.ICIO.USQ&A / CHARLES CRAIG, president of Georgia Bio
Georgia steps up in biotechnologyThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/23/08
Cures for cancer, AIDS and anxiety. New ways to deliver medicines through the skin like nicotine patches do now. How to make farms more productive and their products more delectable.
These will be among the topics discussed when Georgia's biotechnology industry meets in September at the Georgia World Congress Center in an event expected to attract more than 800 entrepreneurs, business executives and scientists.
 Frank Niemeir/AJC | ||
| From left: Altea Therapeutics president and CEO Eric Tomlinson, Georgia Bio's president Charles Craig and Altea's vice president of research Holly Rath in one of Altea's labs in Atlanta. Tomlinson is co-chairman of Georgia Bio. | ||
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Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole is scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the Sept. 24 session that will set the stage for the 2009 BIO International Convention in Atlanta next summer. The 2009 event is expected to attract more than 25,000 people from 70 nations to the GWCC.
Charles Craig, president of Georgia Bio, a nonprofit partnership, said the September event, entitled "Molecules, Materials & Minds — Building Georgia's Innovation Economy," will showcase the research and product development that he said has made biotech the fastest-growing industry in the state since 2001.
The BIO convention in Atlanta next May 17-20 is expected to have a direct economic impact on the city of $26 million, Craig said. About 20,000 are expected at the 2008 BIO International convention in San Diego June 17-20.
Georgia ranks seventh among states in biotech companies, according to a survey by Ernst & Young. Biotech companies pay some of the highest salaries in the state, an average of $61,500 a year, which is more than 50 percent higher than the average of all other industry sectors in Georgia, and employ 16,000 people.
Craig answered range of questions.
Q: How big is the industry in Georgia?
A: Georgia has 270 pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, diagnostic, agbiotech and biofuels companies.
Q: What is biotechnology?
A: Biotechnology is a collection of technologies that capitalize on the attributes of cells, such as their manufacturing capabilities, and put biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, to work for us.
Q: What is Georgia Bio?
A: It's a private, nonprofit, membership-based association that represents and promotes the interests of the life sciences industry in Georgia. Our members are more than 300 pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, universities, research institutes, government groups.
Q: What do they do?
A: They research and develop products that improve health care, agriculture, industrial and energy production, and environmental management.
Q: So what's Georgia Bio's role?
A: We advocate on behalf of the industry at the state and federal governments for public policies that support the industry's efforts to create new products that improve the health and well-being of people worldwide. We partner with the state's economic development officials.
Q: Who are your members?
A: They include pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, as well as companies that are service providers, such as law firms, accounting firms, real estate and construction firms, architectural firms, investment firms and business consulting companies. Membership dues are based on the number of an organization's Georgia-based employees.
Q: What do biotech companies do?
A: Most new medicines being produced are discovered and developed by biotech companies. In many instances, these are new medicines to treat diseases for which no treatments were available. It can take 10 to 12 years and $1 billion to bring a new medicine to patients.
Q: How many Georgia biotech companies do you expect to see at the San Diego convention?
A: Georgia companies, university scientists and scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be represented.
Q: Give me a rundown on things that biotech companies are doing in Georgia.
A: Several are developing AIDS vaccines and other treatments for our most intractable and debilitating diseases. Other companies are also helping plant and animal farmers improve ... techniques that are more environmentally friendly and produce foods that are safer and more nutritious.
Q: Are these companies making money?
A: Many are profitable. Some of the smaller, emerging life sciences companies are not yet profitable. They are in the process of researching and developing their first product.
Q: In 2000, the Georgia Legislature formed the Bioscience Seed Fund, giving $1 in state funds for every $3 of private investment. What's going on now?
A: The fund now has about $8 million and has invested in nearly 15 companies in Georgia..
Q: What is your history?
A: Georgia Bio was founded in 1989 as the Georgia Biomedical Partnership and for 15 years was primarily a volunteer-run organization. In the late 1990s and early part of this decade, growth of Georgia's life sciences industry accelerated and .... in 2005, a full-time president was hired to build a professional staff to better serve ... the industry.
Q: Why is it that biotech doesn't get much ink?
A: The industry has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in Georgia's economy. In Georgia, it includes companies applying advanced life sciences technologies not only to medicine and health care, but also to agriculture, forestry and biofuels.
Q: How is the industry doing?
A: The remarkable growth of the industry in Georgia and across the Southeast since 2000 is a major reason the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) selected Atlanta to host its 2009 BIO International Convention.
Q: Is Georgia Bio like the Atlanta office of a national organization?
A: Georgia Bio is an independent organization that is affiliated with the national Biotechnology Industry Organization. BIO represents more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations.
Q: How do you function with BIO?
A: We work with BIO on state and national issues, and we are part of BIO's Council of State Bioscience Associations with a common mission of promoting public understanding and advocating public policies that support the responsible development of the bioscience industry.
Q: What is the budget of Georgia Bio?
A: Georgia Bio has an annual budget of about $1 million. The organization has three full-time and two part-time employees.
Q: What states are ahead of Georgia in biotech?
A: California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
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