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All the entries posted on June 20, 2008.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
BIOTECH: The Southeast corner of BIO
Live from the international BIO botech industry conference in San Diego
It was the Southeast corner of biotech - sort of.
Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee are usually staunch competitors when it comes to economic development. But on the tradeshow floor of the BIO International Convention in San Diego this week, the four states found themselves side-by-side trying to recruit biotech companies to their respective states.
It wasn’t exactly happenstance. Officials from Georgia, which is sponsoring next year’s BIO conference, said they convinced their neighboring competitors to get their booth spaces together so they could present something of a united Southeastern front to biotech executives and visitors from around the world. They also hope to work together when it comes to putting on the 2009 BIO International in Atlanta next year.
Of course each state did its best to make sure visitors remembered their particular states.
Tennessee, for instance, raffled off a limited edition bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey. Recruiters from Florida handed out SPF 15 lip balm. Georgia gave passers-by free Cokes, home-grown peanuts and pecans. North Carolina may have had the most unique gimme, though: Among other goodies, its representatives were handing out plastic bags of dirt from eastern N.C. - a place, boosters pointed out, that was ripe for bio-agriculture development.
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BIOTECH: Massachusetts is tops
Live from the international BIO botech industry conference in San Diego
In a study released in connection with the BIO International conference, the Milken Institute says Massachusetts is tops when it comes to technology and science.
TOP TECH/SCIENCE STATES
- Massachusetts
- Maryland
- Colorado
- California
- Washington
- Virginia
- Connecticut
- Utah
- New Hamshire
- Rhode Island
Just a few days after Massachusetts passed a $1 billion incentives package to attract and support the biotech industry, the new Milken study gave that state highest marks for its commitment to R&D, its venture capital base and other factors.
Rounding out the Top Five on Milken’s list were Maryland (where Gov. Martin O’Malley just proposed his own $1.1 billion biotech/life sciences stimulus package), Colorado, California and Washington.
But wait a minute. What about all the PR and money and work that places like Florida, Georgia and Texas have put into building its tech sector?
According to Milken, a Santa Monica, Calif. think tank/research group, Texas ranked No. 20 on the list. Georgia was 25 and Florida was way down at 37 - behind places like Ohio, Montana, Hawaii and Idaho.