MD To Open Two Biotech Centers and Increase Venture Funding

Thursday, May 21, 2009, 9:30am
O’Malley: Maryland’s biotech strategy to get funding boost
Baltimore Business Journal - by Julekha Dash Staff

Maryland plans to increase funding for the Maryland Venture Fund and a biotechnology tax credit to boost the state’s $29 billion life sciences industry.

Gov. Martin O’Malley unveiled a more detailed version of the state’s 10-year, $1.3 billion strategy Wednesday afternoon at the BIO 2009 Convention in Atlanta. The convention attracted more than 400 attendees from Maryland, including a delegation of 30 Maryland bioscience companies. State officials and biotech executives made the trip with the hopes of landing new biotech companies for Baltimore and getting investors that have been scarce since the downturn.

Offering access to capital is a key piece of the state’s Bio 2020 plan.

The roadmap includes increasing the Maryland Venture Fund from $2 million to $24 million by 2020 and raising the biotech tax credit from $6 million to $24 million by 2020.

On Monday, O’Malley said the state will open two biotechnology centers in Rockville and Baltimore in the next 30 days. Other features of the Bio 2020 plan include:

• Establishing a bioscience commercialization institute that can help speed up drug discoveries;

• Creating a venture capital trust with $10 million in seed capital;

• Branding Maryland as a leader in the biotech industry;

• Providing loans of up to $5 million to bioscience companies that are in the later stages of product development;

• Increasing funding for technology transfer initiatives at research universities.

The proposals were made at the recommendation of a 15-member life sciences advisory board, which solicited input from more than 100 industry experts to devise the plan.