Maryland ranks fourth in the nation in life sciences, behind California, Massachusetts and North Carolina. But that?s only if you ignore more than half the picture, Comptroller Peter Franchot said Thursday during the state?s first Life Science Summit in Columbia.
“These rankings haven?t included the federal labs and public institutions that are really Maryland?s asset,” Franchot said. “When you include the public institutions, Maryland leads the country.”
When the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, military research installations at Fort Detrick, Aberdeen and Bethesda, and the vast resources of the University System of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University are considered, Maryland outranks all other states, according to a report Franchot released. Johns Hopkins is the single largest recipient of federal biotech research grants, and the state university system ranks second in the nation.
Last year, 377 bioscience companies employed 30,000 people, up from 218 companies and fewer than 15,000 employees 10 years ago, according to the report. Together they contribute $29 billion to the state?s economy.
The state risks becoming an incubator for companies that flee to other states or nations, primarily because Maryland lacks a strong culture of entrepreneurship like that which drove Silicon Valley to prominence in high technology in the last decade, Franchot said.
“We have not yet spawned a spirit of entrepreneurship in our state,” said Brit Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland.
The state also needs to overcome infighting among different regions vying for funding and recognition, and develop a unified plan to market the resources Maryland has, he said. “We to date have lacked a vision and focus in this area for what we can be.”
Venture capitalist Matt Zuga, founder of Red Abbey Venture Partners, agreed.
“We don?t have the entrepreneurial community,” he said. “We do have this layer of bureaucracy that tends to slow things down when good ideas come up.”
He said one deal Red Abbey arranged was stalled twice when the institution that licensed the technology renegotiated for a bigger slice of the pie. Though he didn?t name the university, he said that makes investors skittish.
However, he said, there is a lot of venture capital in the state. Red Abbey has funded 22 life sciences companies in the last three years, including nine that are publicly traded.
“One of the largest venture capital firms in the world is located here in Maryland,” he said. “New Enterprise Associates is worth more than $8.5 billion.”
FAST FACTS
Total direct spending in the bioscience sector accounts for $15.7 billion a year:
» Private sector: $7.8 billion
» National Institutes of Health: $2.7 billion
» Other research: $5.2 billion
Source: “Maryland: The Nation?s Bioscience Leader” by Sage Policy Group Inc. for Comptroller Peter Franchot
