City hopes to be a biotech leader

Nicholas Nicolaides, CEO of the Philadelphia-based biotechnology company Morphotek, has a rather unusual career for an urban businessman. He grows soybeans. Morphotek, located at the corner of 36th and Market streets, uses the soybeans in its laboratory to research genetically altered organisms for agricultural uses. And if top city and state officials have their way, many more biotech companies like Morphotek will soon call Philadelphia home. Earlier this month, Gov. Tom Ridge's announced plans for the creation of "biotech greenhouses" in the Philadelphia area. And Mayor John Street's formation of the New Economy Development Alliance -- to be headed by University President Judith Rodin -- also committed the city to advancing the region's biotech industry. "We're all looking for the same thing -- operating capital," Nicolaides said. "With additional city and state support, they should be able to bring in a dozen more companies." The Philadelphia region is already buoyed by life science powerhouses such as Penn, which ranks second nationally in funding from the National Institutes of Health. But the reason that Philadelphia has few biotech companies may be due to what Louis Berneman calls the "technology valley of death." "The difficulty is that our discoveries are basic science discoveries, and industry is interested in technologies, products, markets, and customers," said Berneman, managing director of Penn's Center for Technology Transfer. "Our job is to move the science from nowhere to somewhere." Ridge has proposed spending $30 million dollars in southeastern Pennsylvania to bring biotech to the region through commercializing the discoveries made at area universities. This money will be be spent on the biotech industry's "most critical emerging needs," which will likely include initial funding and specialized worker training, according to Timothy McNulty of the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Ridge's plan is based on Pittsburgh's Digital Greenhouse, a two-year-old plan to create a design center in southwestern Pennsylvania for next-generation microchips. Since its inception, Pittsburgh's center has added nine chip companies -- including such prominent names as Cisco Systems and Sony -- to the 17 that already existed. Opening the tap to biotech funding would seem natural for Philadelphia, with 80 percent of the nation's biotech and pharmaceutical employment located within 50 miles of the city. "People frequently criticize Philadelphia for not being New York or Washington," said Karen Hanson, managing director for intellectual capital at Greater Philadelphia First, an association of area business leaders. "We see that as a tremendous advantage to be located right between the financial and regulatory capitals." Ridge has outlined a vision and provided funding for Philadelphia's biotech community, but implementing the program is "best left on the front lines -- not in Harrisburg," according to McNulty. Locally, Street's New Economy Development Alliance hopes to "focus on what city government needs to do to make Philadelphia new economy friendly," Rodin said. The Alliance hopes to pull together the work of other groups such as Greater Philadelphia First and the Pennsylvania Biotech Association, which formed a partnership in January to build the state's biotech development platform. "There have been all these groups each doing their own piece," Rodin said. "If [the Alliance] can be pulled off, it's really to try to align the stakeholders and make everyone really think creatively together about this." Philadelphia is not alone in its efforts to court the biotechnology sector. According to the Pennsylvania Economy League, Michigan has earmarked $1 billion over 20 years to integrate academic institutions with industry. Several universities in North Carolina also plan to spend a combined $640 million to expand their biotechnology efforts. Rodin believes the combined city and state efforts will allow Philadelphia to keep pace with its peers. "So much of attracting these companies has to do with perception, so we have to change the reality, but we also have to change the perception," Rodin said.