Critical mass: South Florida has long hoped to promote itself as a biomedical cluster. With the advent of the Scripps Research facility in Palm Beach County, that regional aspiration now has major traction

South Florida CEO, June, 2004 by Richard Westlund

When the Scripps Research Institute announced plans to open its new east coast US research facility in northern Palm Beach County, the region's entire biomedical industry received a shot in the arm. In addition to creating more than 500 direct jobs in the next decade, the new Scripps facility is expected to attract related manufacturers and create spin-off companies. The estimated 15-year impact: 6,500 new jobs and $1.6 billion added to the regional economy.

"The entry of Scripps into South Florida will open all sorts of opportunities for our local universities and bioscience companies to further their development activities," says Mel Rothberg, chairman of the South Florida Bioscience Consortium and executive vice president for Viragen, a Broward bioscience company. "We are already seeing increased interest by the scientific and investment community in South Florida's bioscience efforts."

Scripps already has scientists in South Florida, setting up a laboratory facility at Florida Atlantic University's Boca Raton campus. FAU is also constructing a new building on its Jupiter campus that will provide temporary space for Scripps until the permanent building just west of Palm Beach Gardens is completed.

"Things with Scripps are moving along quite well," says Larry Lemanski, FAU's vice president for research and graduate studies. "Their scientists will be given faculty appointments at FAU and will be involved with our teaching and research programs if they choose." Lemanski adds that several researchers from both institutions are already looking at plans for a potential spin-off company to make antiinflammatory medicines and anti-cancer drugs derived from marine compounds. In the private sector realm. Sheridan Snyder. CEO of Upstate Group and a founder of Genzyme, has already announced plans to launch three new biotech firms in South Florida this year.

More than its immediate impact in Palm Beach County, the coming of Scripps is seen as a major impetus to, and result of, regional aspirations. "Scripps is a great example of regional cooperation," says Frank Nero, CEO of The Beacon Council, Miami-Dade's economic development agency. "It's going to Palm Beach, but without a University of Miami or a Florida International University to supplement what Florida Atlantic University is doing, how successful would they be?"

The measure of that success, say industry leaders, is how Scripps will help South Florida tackle two key obstacles restraining the region's bioscience industry: lack of venture capital financing and a relatively small pool of entrepreneurial and management talent. "For biotechnology to prosper, you need a critical mass," says attorney Carl Roston, who chairs Akerman Senterfitt's Venture Capital Practice Group in Miami. "We hope that Scripps will be that catalyst."

Claire Thuning-Roberson, vice president of product development and compliance for Sunol Molecular Corporation in Miramar, believes Scripps will promote regional growth much as it has in San Diego, through strong collaborations with area universities and the transfer of technology to industry for commercialization. "Scripps has demonstrated success repeatedly by its licensing deals with industry and the number of start-ups," she says. In addition. Scripps will provide a clinical research hospital, adding an important infrastructure component for product development.

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"With Scripps, South Florida has an opportunity to be one of the top 10 biotech clusters in the country," says David Day, director of the Office of Technology Licensing and the Sid Martin Biotechnology Development Incubator at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "The overall outlook for biomedical investment is better this year, and Scripps is throwing out a halo that will bring extra attention," says Day, who is also a founder of the Southeastern Bioinvestors Forum, which will hold its sixth annual conference in Miami this November.

Even before Gov. Jeb Bush announced Scripps' plans last October--and the state's $310 million commitment to the project--South Florida's biomedical industry was already striving to enhance its national position and grow its numbers, which include scores of top ranked firms (Cordis, Beckman Coulter, Boston Scientific, Ivax, Shering-Plough, Nabi, Kos) as well as some 1,500 related businesses and academic facilities. In addition to the creation of the South Florida Bioscience Consortium, South Florida's primary biomedical research institutions--UM's School of Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, FAU and FIU--are investing more than $1 billion in new programs and facilities, including new wet labs and incubator space to help biomedical startups.

The UM School of Medicine, for example, broke ground in January on a new Clinical Research Building and Wellness Center that will coordinate clinical research programs. "With South Florida's large and diverse patient population, and the university's ties with Jackson Memorial Hospital, we have a huge opportunity to develop and test new therapeutic applications," says Camillo Ricordi, M.D., scientific director of the university's Diabetes Research Institute, and senior associate dean for research.