Biotech Upside Too Big to Ignore (Editorial)

The potential for the biotech industry in Arkansas is enormous. Some of the research being done at the University of Arkansas and at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences could someday make the world a much better place.

We don’t pretend to understand it all. We’re not bioscientists. What we can understand, however, is the tremendous business opportunities that biotech research and development could bring to this state.

The UAMS Arkansas Biomedical Biotechnology Center’s BioVentures business accelerator program has spawned nine companies with five more expected within the next six months.

The number of inventions coming out of UAMS has risen from 30 in 1994 to 240 in 2001, while the annual research funding pumped into the program has grown from about $35 million to $75 million.

“We are now operating at about $80 million of [research and development funding] a year, and that really constitutes about 25-30 patent disclosures a year,” said Dr. Tim O’Brien, the Biomedical Biotechnology Center’s director. “The key thing for us is to pass the technology into applications that are suitable for startup companies here in Arkansas.”

How right he is. The only way these startups can capitalize on the research is to learn how to use it to bring new products and services to market.

Startup capital must be readily available for these new companies, but so far, there hasn’t been much investor support. That’s a shame. Some startups may not make it because investors have a hard time understanding just what the biotech company is doing. Some, however, could be big winners, bringing their investors great wealth. The biotechnology industry in the United States has more than doubled in size, from $8 billion in revenue in 1993 to $22.3 billion in 2000.

Many businesses in the state eventually will be affected by the biotech industry, either directly or indirectly — some may even be revolutionized. Already being affected are agriculture, health care, life and health insurance, information technology, personal care products dealing with nutrition and weight loss among other things, and even governments. Companies such as Safe Foods Corp., a UAMS spinoff, will not only save lives but create wealth within the state.

Business and government in Arkansas must embrace the biotech industry, even though we may be overwhelmed by it and might not understand the possibility it has to improve our lives. If we don’t, we’ll be locked into our usual position of being last in everything.