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Biotech / Medical : MEDX ... anybody following? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Icebrg who wrote (751)	10/12/2003 7:11:20 AM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2240

New Jersey starts $10M biotech fund By John George Philadelphia Business Journal [There is a reference to KeyCell Therapeutics - a Medarex spin-off - at the end of the article]. Oct. 13 — Already home to the nation's largest concentration of major pharmaceutical manufacturers, New Jersey is now looking to bolster its roster of biotechnology companies. Last week, State Treasurer John E. McCormac announced the state is creating a $10 million venture capital fund to help launch new life-sciences companies. "We're thrilled; this is exactly what we need," said Debbie Hart, president of the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey. "There's a lack of early-stage life-sciences company funding in New Jersey. To have the state government step forward and kick something like this off is great. I keep pinching myself hourly to make sure I'm not dreaming." Hart, however, cautioned that to be successful the state will need to attract additional seed capital from private investors willing to partner with the state to build a larger venture fund. "Ten million dollars is an excellent start, but it's not enough to fund a whole lot of companies for a long time," she said. McCormac believes the new fund, to be administered by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, will be at least tripled by investments from private sources. The fund is being created to make equity investments in early-stage biotech and life-sciences companies. The state plans to hire a private fund manager, who will work with the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey to determine the criteria that will be used for making investments. Only life-sciences companies based in New Jersey will be eligible to participate. Proceeds from a $50 million state Business Employment Incentive Program bond issue planned for November will be used to finance the $10 million biotech fund. The fund will be part of a $50 million venture fund the Garden State is planning to establish to spur the formation of new companies and new jobs in the state. "The state has a rich history as a leader in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries," McCormac said, "The [biotech] venture fund will help assure that New Jersey continues this role for the next generation of biotech advances." McCormac announced the creation of the $10 million biotech fund in Jersey City at last week's annual life-sciences symposium organized by the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey and the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association. New Jersey is already home to about 120 biotech companies with more than 8,000 employees, according to the N.J. biotech council. An industry report issued earlier this year by Ernst & Young credited New Jersey with 69 public and private biotech companies, placing it fifth on the firm's ranking of biotech companies by state. California topped the list with 436, followed by Massachusetts at 200, Maryland at 94 and North Carolina at 84. Pennsylvania ranked seventh with 61 companies, according to the report. Hart said other states, such as Pennsylvania, have taken steps to address the shortage of funding for early-stage life-sciences companies. Pennsylvania used $100 million from its tobacco settlement money last year to establish three biotech greenhouses, including one for the Philadelphia region, to help nurture new biotech companies. Fritz Bittenbender, president of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, said the trade group is now focusing its attention on getting Pennsylvania to allow biotech to sell or trade unused tax credits for cash and to raise the ceiling on research-and-development tax credits for companies to $60 million from $15 million. Hart said New Jersey, which allows companies to sell tax credits, has lost biotech firms to other states, as well as other countries, because of the lack of seed capital. She noted GenMab, a biotech company spun out of Medarex Inc. of Princeton, ended up setting up shop in Denmark because of the availability of investment capital in there. "Because there was no New Jersey early-stage money, they went where the money was," she said. "That happened to be Denmark. They went public (raising $183 million in October 2000) and ended up breaking the record for the largest biotech IPO in Europe. They have products in all stages of clinical trials." GenMab, which is developing human antibody therapies and treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases, has grown to 200 employees. Only 17 of its employees are in Princeton, where the company maintains an office. Now, Medarex is spinning out another company called KeyCell Therapeutics. Donald Drakeman, the president and CEO of Medarex, said his company is "carving out" KeyCell from a portion of Medarex's existing research focused on the development of cancer vaccines. Hart said KeyCell is a perfect candidate for the new biotech fund. "We don't want to see what happened with GenMab happen again," she said. "We can't afford to lose another 200 high-paying jobs." Drakeman wants to see KeyCell, which will initially be staffed by a half-dozen Medarex researchers, remain in New Jersey. He believes the new biotech fund could help achieve that goal. "Our people live in the area and we would like very much to keep KeyCell close at hand," he said. famulus.msnbc.com