From his perch as an executive with Agilent Technologies, the world's top supplier of scientific testing equipment, Nick Roelofs has a prime view of the changes taking place in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Big drug companies are consolidating and changing their focus from "small-molecule" chemical drugs to more complex biological drugs, those derived from living cells. In the process, universities, research centers and small biotechnology companies are playing a larger role in developing new medicines.
"The path for drug discovery is completely changing," said Roelofs, a vice president in Agilent's life sciences and chemical analysis business, which employs about 700 at three sites in Delaware.
The question, Roelofs said Wednesday, is whether Delaware's life sciences industry can find a niche in this competitive landscape.
Roelofs' comments came at the Delaware Bioscience Business Roundtable, an event exploring the prospects for a diverse sector that includes not just pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, but medical device manufacturers, agricultural technology companies, research firms and medical institutions. Wednesday's forum brought about 200 attendees to Christiana Hospital.
The life sciences already have a strong footprint in Delaware,
thanks in part to the presence of industry giants such as chemical and biotech firm DuPont Co., drug maker AstraZeneca and Agilent. A study earlier this year by the University of Delaware's Center for Applied Demography & Survey Research found that the biopharmaceutical and related sectors employed nearly 12,000 people in Delaware in 2008.
Several speakers touted Delaware's advantages in the field of life sciences, including its strong sense of community, easy access to government officials and high concentration of Ph.D.s.
"We have a lot to build on," Gov. Jack Markell said in the event's keynote speech.
But Markell noted the fierce competition among states and foreign countries to lure biotech firms and their high-paying jobs. A small state like Delaware is not going to win a bidding war to attract new companies, Markell said.
"The real question," he said, "is where we go from here."
The industry faces several challenges in the short term, including uncertainty over potential reforms to the U.S. health care system. Lori Reilly, vice president for the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said her organization is tracking issues that may affect drug company profits.
Another challenge to growth in the life sciences is training the next generation of workers in an age when U.S. students are falling behind their foreign counterparts in science education. Patrick Kelly, a vice president for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, cited data that show U.S. students ranked 17th out of 29 wealthy nations in scientific literacy.
"States will not be successful unless you have access to a qualified work force," Kelly said.
Access to funding important Advances in biotechnology require time and money, and access to funding is a perennial difficulty for fledgling biotech firms. Kelly, who tracks state legislative affairs, outlined a number of policies that states have implemented to attract investments in biotechnology, such as creating investment funds, cutting capital gains taxes and implementing tax credits for investing in biotech firms.
Alan Levin, director of the Delaware Economic Development Office, later said that Kelly's presentation showed him how far Delaware lags behind other states in its policies. Levin said Delaware is "playing catch-up" after losing its two auto assembly plants and seeing its main engine of job growth, financial services, suffer in recent months.
"We just fell asleep at the switch for a number of years," Levin said.
The roundtable event was one of a series of forums across the country sponsored by four national business groups: the Biotechnology Industry Organization, National Venture Capital Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Local business and health groups, including the Delaware BioScience Association, Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and Delaware HIV Consortium, also joined in the event.
Sam Waltz, a Wilmington consultant and former executive in DuPont's agriculture and medical products businesses, attended the event. He said the main thing missing from Wednesday's presentations was a strategy from Delaware's leaders to grow the state's bioscience industry and attract new companies.
"Certainly, the promise is huge, it's significant," Waltz said, "but it takes a strategy, a plan and resources."
