South Florida Biotech

South Florida has several areas of improvement. We recently talked about the improved real estate environment and how we are recovering faster than the national average. Here is some additional news that bauds well for the South Florida economic environment thanks to Biotech.

New data from University of Florida‘s Sid Martin Biotechnology incubator shows that Florida’s life science sector continues to grow at a faster pace than the nation’s.

Biotech deals grew by 27 percent in 2012, to 19 deals from 15 in the previous year, and venture capital dollars rose to $103.5 million, a 19 percent increase over 2011.

Separately, Palm Beach County said Monday it has a contract with Kolter Homes to develop the 800-acre Briger tract in Palm Beach Gardens, adjacent to Scripps Florida research institute in Jupiter. Besides housing, 170 acres is reserved for biotech that could include lab space, biotech companies, a teaching hospital and medical offices, said Shannon LaRocque, assistant county administrator.

“This is a milestone,” she said, saying the county’s vision was to build a cluster of development around Scripps.

Biotech investment in Florida still pales in comparison to other states in actual dollars, BioFlorida’s report says, but the percentage growth of funding is outpacing the national average. In 2012, there was a 13 percent decline in life science funding, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

 

In the analysis by the incubator and BioFlorida, the industry has grown more than 60 percent during the past five years — bringing the total number of biotechnology companies to 219. The nation’s biotechnology sector grew 5 percent over the same period, according to Ernst & Young and Nature Biotechnology.

The goal of venture capitalists is generally to sell a company or take it public to provide a return for investors. But that success also can mean a loss of jobs, as in the case of Envoy Therapeutics. Envoy originally moved to Jupiter to work with Scripps Florida, which screened compounds for potential drug development for Envoy. The company now is working on improved treatments for Parkinson’s disease.

Last year, Envoy was acquired by San Diego-based Takeda in a $140 million deal that will move the company and its key staff to California.

Still, Envoy’s success has brought new business to Scripps, said Peter Hodder, who leads Scripps’ commercialization efforts. “It says ‘South Florida is a place where you can be successful.'”

In South Florida, the report notes Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, which opened its new $64 million center in Jupiter last fall, and Palm Beach State College’s biotechnology program have successfully placed most of its graduates into full-time employment.

Although South Florida is better known for its real estate and hospitality industries, it now can also count biotech as one of its fastest growing industries.