An international study identifying the top five regions offering incentives to attract biotech businesses leaves Arizona out in the cold.

The five regions - California, Maryland, New Jersey, Singapore and Wisconsin - are best positioned to become hotbeds of biotech innovation because of their economic development initiatives, said John Carroll, editor and analyst of the Washington, D.C.-based  FierceBiotech, the online publication that conducted the study.

 

"When you apply direct financial incentives to ambitious and noted research and development projects, like what you see with Maryland and the universities have going on, it's a compelling model for biotech," Carroll said. "I don't know how effective Arizona has been in that respect." 

 

Jon McGarity, president and chief exective of the Arizona BioIndustry Assocation, said Arizona has done very little to offer incentives to attract biotech firms to the state.

 

"As we move forward, certainly we're going to have to start to look for incentives and initiatives and possibly some tax credits to financially help fuel the growth of the bioscience industry," McGarity said. "We need to start working with public and private and government entities to figure out the best ways to develop incentives to attract bioscience companies to Arizona."

 

Some incentives, such as the sales factor tax break and angel tax credit were passed last year, but those address the broad technology sector.

 

Remember, McGarity said, "We're only three years into this. We're making tremendous progress. We need to increase the momentum. Now is not the time to sit back and relax. We need to increase our efforts further."

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council is doing its part to bolster the state's bioindustry. It currently is courting a dozen bio-related companies looking for about 135,000 square feet of space in the Valley.

 

"We've got a letter of intent from two of them to come to the Valley, but we've got to build more space," said GPEC Chief Executive Barry Broome, who declined to identify the firms. "We're getting into a situation where, in building compelling science, we need a development strategy of creating space and infrastructure for these companies."

 

Local biotech advocates agree that even with the recent $50 million biotech grant from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, Arizona still has a ways to go in offering sweet deals such as those highlighted in the FierceBiotech report.

 

The most Carroll can say about Arizona is that the state is characterizing itself as less expensive than California.

 

"Arizona has been successful in positioning itself because it's right next door to Southern California," Carroll said. "You're able to make a pretty convincing case it's less expensive to operate."

 

He said it's difficult to find a state that isn't focuing on biotechnology. But only a few states are taking out their checkbooks to provide financial support to attract biotech firms to their regions, he said.

 

Broome said biotech can't just be bought, it has to be earned.

 

"What I like about what we're doing in Arizona is we're earning it," Broome said. "We need to put more resources behind it, but Arizona biotech is a lot more innovative and entrepreneurial than other states."

 

He predicts that, within the next three to five years, Arizona will pull ahead of the pack as other states throw away their resources.