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