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Senator Jake Corman (R-34) In 2001 when I introduced legislation, 2001: SB505, to create three regional research biotechnology centers in Pennsylvania, I wrote in an op-ed for a newspaper that "the legislation will help us to leverage our research institutions even more - to make them even better partners in economic development... not just to the benefit of the communities that will house the greenhouses, but throughout the state." As the state Senator serving the 34th Senatorial District which includes Penn State, I'm pleased to say that this prediction of six years ago is spot-on. Today, as a board member of Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania, I am proud to say that our investment portfolio includes six start-ups surrounding the campus of Penn State such as AciesHealth, NanoHorizons, and SoftGenetics. This success story of local entrepreneurs bringing investment and jobs to local economies is replicated throughout Pennsylvania with the help of our three regional life sciences greenhouses: BioAdvance, the Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. By taking a look at the three greenhouses websites, you can clearly see that the 2001 Tobacco Settlement legislation, that included Senate Bill 505's language, is a tremendous success in bringing start-ups to communities across Pennsylvania and making our Commonwealth a destination for research in important fields. Also in that op-ed from six years ago, I wrote that "the biggest measure of the success of Senate Bill 505 will be the resulting job creation, in addition to the important advances in biotechnology and healthcare." According to the 2007 Pennsylvania Bioscience Industry Report, Pennsylvania has created or retained more than 1,500 jobs with the help of our greenhouses. The report also tells us that the average wage for a bioscience worker in Pennsylvania is $69,474, nearly twice the average private sector wage of $38,055 for all workers in the state. Most importantly for our world-class research universities, Pennsylvania ranks 5th in total National Institutes of Health research awards and 4th in total bioscience academic expenditures. Again, we have succeeded. The greenhouse initiative has been and is a major success story and one of the best components of the Tobacco Settlement Act. Because we have evaluated how well this legislative effort has performed and found that it is clearly one of the best investments we have made for the future of Pennsylvania, it stands to reason that we do more to stimulate its long-term success. We again look to the future of Pennsylvania being a leader in bioscience and producing legislation that will be forward thinking in ensuring our state's success and status as the landing place for entrepreneurs and companies in the biosciences. I have introduced legislation, SB800, which will create a Health Venture Investment Account and a Biotechnology Commercialization Account. These accounts will allow the greenhouses to fund additional technologies as they move through the process from the laboratory to patients. My legislation will redirect those earnings and place them in the Health Venture Investment Account. SB800 protects some dollars for continued investment into Pennsylvania's emerging bioscience industry. This investment is critical to the ongoing growth and success of our young companies, which are at the center of commercialization activities. With this legislation, the Tobacco Settlement Investment Board may invest money from the Health Venture Investment Account in healthcare, biotechnology or any other health-related businesses that are expected to grow substantially in the future. The Biotechnology Commercialization Account funds would go to the three regional biotechnology research centers to support commercialization activities. Commercialization activities for which these funds may be used include any activity that assists in the testing, production and licensing or sale of a bioscience product or leads to the testing, the access or creation of markets for the bioscience product. With this funding, companies such as AciesHealth, NanoHorizons, or SoftGenetics can receive additional funding from the greenhouses to get their products to market. Because Pennsylvania has seen a significant number of companies started and financed through the greenhouse program and the venture capital program, our state is now reaping the benefits of this growth and will continue to do so if the support remains. SB800 maintains the commonwealth's commitment to this emerging industry, which is essential to maintaining our competitive advantage as 40 other states launch programs to support the bioscience sector. SB800 is enormously important to Pennsylvania's bioscience industry and venture capital community. We would be the only state in the nation with a significant, long-term recyclable, dedicated source of capital for the benefit of the bioscience industry. We will secure Pennsylvania's economic future and with it, have a brand new success story to tell. (Senator Jake Corman, the Senate's Majority Policy Chairman, was first elected to the state Senate in 1998. He represents the 34th Senatorial District, which includes Centre, Mifflin, Juniata, Perry and parts of Union Counties.) CapNews Guest Speaker: Archives |
