Economist Says Biotech Not Attractable

Governors and mayors from across the country were in full force at the biotech industry's annual convention this week, offering tax breaks, government grants - even help with parking - to lure biotech companies.

Yet biotech remains a money-losing, niche industry firmly rooted in three small regions of the country. "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable," said Joseph Cortright, a Portland, Ore., economist who co-wrote a report on the subject. "This is a bad-idea virus that has swept through governors, mayors and economic-development officials."

Cortright is partially right on this assessment, but the situation is far from deterministic. There are plenty of biomedical device companies and other practical types of bioscience-related businesses that are on the move. It all depends upon what you include in your definition of the bio industry. My assumption for the future is that businesses, like everything else in the world will see great change in the years ahead, and that includes where they locate and whether they concentrate in old or new places. Some pieces of the industry are unlikely to budge, but others are very mobile.

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