Related story: New bio-rivals loom for Maryland

Some of Maryland’s potential bio-competitors have found much of their growth stemming from industry giants that have remained staples of those communities.

Conversely, Maryland’s growth has sprung primarily from homegrown companies and university spinoffs.

For example, Eli Lilly & Co. of Indianapolis has seeded spinoffs while drawing in its suppliers and company clients for 135 years, said Dan Hasler, secretary of commerce for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Lilly’s focus on insulin-related developments also drew in Roche Diagnostics, a division of the Swiss biotech giant.

The Indianapolis bio-cluster ranked 16th in a new report from Jones Lang LaSalle.

Hasler also spoke to Indiana’s overall business environment as a lure for biotech, emphasizing the state’s low cost of doing business and tax credit programs.

Maryland also has its biotechnology investment tax credit, which has helped spur more than $80 million in investment to 60 businesses in the last six years, said Judith Britz, executive director of the Maryland Biotechnology Center. The state’s program has been considered a model for other states.

The state also has invested $100 million in stem cell research through its Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, she said.

Backed by companies such as Lonza in Frederick, Maryland has a good chance of hosting the first business to get a stem cell-based product cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Britz said. The Maryland Technology Development Corp. also has plans to give special funding to stem cell research.

“If the base operating dynamics of the state aren’t right, it’s impossible to grow anything,” Hasler said.

With 825 bioscience businesses generating $70 billion in sales, Indiana also is looking to programs, such as its BioCrossroads, that link business and academic resources, he said.

The new report says Indianapolis needs to further solidify such relationships to become a major biotech player.

Illinois has based its emerging biotech presence around Abbott Laboratories and Baxter, both pharmaceutical giants, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s annual international convention. The state was the first to bring the convention to the Midwest and has hosted it twice, with plans to host it again in 2013 and 2016.

Chicago’s cluster ranks 11th in the report.

The state first started its major push into the sector in 1996, when a biotech business group approached Illinois about hosting the convention. This led to the creation of a biotech pointman for the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Development’s tech investment division, said Dennis Sienko, now the pointman and senior adviser to the director of the division.

“We have a long way to go to maximize our upsides in all sectors,” Sienko said, referring especially to the agricultural biotech sector.

Illinois focuses on leveraging the BIO convention to set up initiatives for research education and business startups between its hosting of the convention. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) was named BIO’s Governor of the Year in 2011; Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) claimed that honor in 2010.

Other established clusters such as San Diego and Boston have shared Maryland’s reliance on organic growth but had earlier success, said Douglas Doerfler, CEO of MaxCyte.

Maryland companies such as MedImmune in Gaithersburg, which was acquired by AstraZeneca of the U.K., and university spinoff Martek Biosciences in Columbia, which was required by DSM of the Netherlands, came into their own much later than companies in those other clusters.

People then leave those companies to launch new endeavors, such as Zygenia in Gaithersburg, which was created by former MedImmune executives, Doerfler said. This continues the cycle of growth.

Maryland’s next challenge is to bring in people who understand commercialization, Doerfler said.

“We’re really great at discovery and development and we’re growing our expertise in manufacturing. Once we have commercialization, we can leverage a fully integrated and functional biotech industry,” he said.

Britz said the state industry also is starting to see its next generation of biotechs through synthetic biology development.

lrobbins@gazette.net