About a decade ago, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told the state legislature he saw Florida becoming one of the country's biotech hubs. At the time, it was a little hard to envision Florida as a hotspot for bioscience and biotech companies, but now, almost 10 years later, that idea seems far less far-fetched.
Thus far, Florida has spent about $1.6 billion on building a research and development base at state universities and business incubators. Industry observers say that money has lured in biotech entrepreneurs, researchers and ventures capitalists. Even though funding for bioscience startups is half of what it was at the start of the recession, according to some estimates, it seems Florida has performed admirably in nurturing this industry.
Biotech and health sciences jobs are highly desirable because they attract educated workers, pay well, and pull in investment money. In short, they can easily become a region's economic engine.
Biotech industry insiders say what's still missing is access to seed money. Venture capitalists, angel networks and the like help a great deal, of course, but a startup or young company that cannot attract enough investment money to stay in business during those lean first few years is not likely to succeed.
In our office, we regularly assist people who want to start a business or have started their business already and need to develop a roadmap for the future. For more information about us, you could visit our Business Formation and Planning page.
Source: The South Florida Sun Sentinel, "Biotech industry aims for growth," Marcia Heroux Pounds, Nov. 3, 2012
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