GA Trend Feature: Georgia's Biotech Future

Georgia's Biotech Future

Jerry Grillo published May 2010

The industry accounts for 62,000 jobs, $3.6 billion in labor income and $517 million in tax revenues ...but we’re not there yet.

It was the kind of blockbuster news that gave hope to the dying, a bullish revelation that sent stock prices soaring. After decades of theorizing and testing and coming up with mostly nothing, medical scientists found a way of stimulating the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells and prevent the disease from recurring.

The company that makes this revolutionary immunotherapy drug, Seattle-based Dendreon, wants to be in Georgia – in Union City – and it will spend a lot of money and create hundreds of jobs for the privilege. Dendreon made the announcement a few months after Atlanta hosted the world’s largest gathering of biotech professionals, the 2009 BIO International Convention.

“It’s part of the ripple effect of hosting that convention,” says Charlie Craig, president of Georgia Bio, the nonprofit association that represents the state’s life science industry, with 300 members, including companies, universities, government groups and other industry associations.

Keep Reading at: http://www.georgiatrend.com/features-business-industry/05_10_biotech.shtml

Bioscience Commercialization Center Will Assist Entrepreneurs

ATLANTA, Ga. (May 3, 2010) – Georgia Bio, the Georgia Research Alliance, the State of Georgia, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Innovation Crescent business community have formed a partnership to create the Georgia Bioscience Commercialization Center (GBCC), which will act as a start-up catalyst and resource center for bioscience entrepreneurs in Georgia.

Seed funding for the GBCC was provided by Georgia Bio (GaBio) and the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). The GBCC will be headquartered in the GaBio offices at 1180 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 4150, Atlanta, Ga, 30308

Keep Reading at: http://www.gabio.org/pr_details.aspx?subid=329

Visit GBCC: www.GeorgiaBCC.com