The Washington region has an impressive biotechnology resume. A strong research and development infrastructure, more working scientists than anywhere else in the country and millions of federal, state and private dollars in investments have put Washington near the top of the list to take the biotech crown.
But despite its progress over the past 15 years, the Washington region still has more work ahead if it hopes to catch up with biotech powerhouses Boston and San Francisco, industry experts said.
“Washington, D.C., in relation to Silicon Valley or Boston, is still a relatively new region for biotech,” said Heike Mayer, an assistant professor in urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech, who co-authored a comprehensive report on the U.S. biotechnology industry. “D.C. was oneof these regions that didn’t have first-mover advantage. It developed its government-related research firms and then developed the commercialization. Connecting the research with commercialization is really key here.”
With about a 20-year head start, Boston and San Francisco have long been the undisputed leaders in the commercialization of biotech breakthroughs, with regions such as San Diego, Los Angeles, New York and Washington nipping at their heels. The San Francisco region, for example, secured more than 5,500 patents — a popular benchmark for judging an industry’s commercial viability — between 1975 and 1999, about 2,800 more than Washington. Boston and San Francisco also pull in far more venture capital dollars than Washington — a key ingredient for turning research into a profitable company. Between 1995 and 2001, the two regions combined accounted for more than 50 percent of the industry’s venture capital investments, while Washington accounted for about 1 percent.
In addition, Boston and San Francisco outrank Washington in number of commercial biotech firms. Washington has 83, compared to San Francisco’s 152 and Boston’s 141.
The fact that much of the research in San Francisco and Boston is based out of its top research universities — and not the federal government — also gave them an advantage over Washington.
“[Washington] pales by comparison to the combination of Harvard Medical School and MIT or Stanford, Berkeley and [University of California, San Francisco],” said Gerald Rubin, vice president and director of Janelia Farm, the soon-to-open biomedical research campus in Loudoun County.
Rubin, who has done research at MIT, Stanford, Berkeley and Harvard, said scientists have had trouble taking federally funded research from the lab to the commercial world.
“[In Boston and San Francisco], we were encouraged to start companies,” he said. “[National Institutes of Health] says it’s a conflict of interest … and a lot of scientists here work directly for the federal government.”
But many of the Washington region’s obstacles appear to be quickly vanishing. For example, taking research from a federal lab to a commercial firm — known as a “tech transfer” in the industry — has become easier over the years.
“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, trying to work with the government to license technology was hard to do,” said J.J. Finkelstein, president and CEO of RegenRx, a Bethesda-based firm using NIH-licensed research to develop drugs that will accelerate tissue and organ repair. “No one focused on tech transfer until companies started work with the California universities, and the universities made a lot of money.”
In 2005, the NIH Office of Technology Transfer, which oversees tech transfer for NIH and the Food and Drug Administration, issued 313 commercial licenses and collected nearly $100 million in royalties from commercial firms working with federal research.
The investment community also appears to have finally recognized the Washington region as a strong biotechnology cluster. In addition to significantly upping the amount of venture capital investments in the region, the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association will hold its second annual biotechnology conference Oct. 10 and 11, a sign Washington can support the industry. Mid-Atlantic Bio will connect venture capitalists from across the country with local startup firms.
The conference “sends a very strong signal that this market can pull together and support the industry,” said Julia Spicer, executive director of MAVA. “We believe the Mid-Atlantic and the D.C. region has not yet realized its market potential, but the resources are certainly notable. We have world-class institutions that make the formula for a good investment community, and we have momentum building in this market.”
Washington’s bioscience infrastructure
science infrastructure put it on the road to biotech success. The region is home to federal labs, profitable biotech companies, strong research universities and nonprofit research facilities.
Colleges with Medical or Bioscience Programs:
1. American University
2. Bowie State University
3. Catholic University of America
4. Gallaudet University
5. George Mason University
6. George Mason University National
Center for Biodefense
7. George Washington University
Medical Center
8. Georgetown University Medical
Center
9. Hood College
10. Howard University Medical
School
11. Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine
12. Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Lab
13. Johns Hopkins University
Montgomery County Campus
14. St. Mary’s College of Maryland
15. University of Maryland
16. University of Maryland Biotechnol-
ogy Institute
Federal Laboratories
17. Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency
18. U.S. Department of Energy
19. Food and Drug Administration
20. Fort Detrick
21. NASA Goodard
22. National Institute for Standards in
Technology
23. National Institutes of Health
24. National Institute of Human
Genome Research
25. Naval Medical Research Center
26. USDA Agricultural Research
Service
27. Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research
28. Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Largest Bioscience Companies
29. Human Genome Sciences
30. MedImmune
31. Fisher Scientific
32. Gene Logic
33. Celera Genomics
34. Digene
35. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals
36. Martek Biosciences
37. Advancis Pharmaceutical
38. Cambrex BioScience
39. Invitrogen
40. DynPort Vaccine Company
41. Eli Lilly and Co.
42. Mediatech Inc.
43. Meso Scale Diagnostics
44. Qiagen
Nonprofit Research Facilities
45. American Type Culture Collection
46. Howard Hughes Medical Institute
47. Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
Janelia Farm Research Campus
48. Inova Institute of Research and Education
49. Institute for Genomic Research
50. American Red Cross Holland Lab
51. National Cancer Institute
