In 1984, biotechnology was anything but a household word, especially in North Carolina. Nonetheless, a group of Tarheel visionaries saw the future as it might be and set about to make it happen. The North Carolina Biotechnology Center was created that year by the state legislature as the nation's first private, nonprofit organization to further research, economic development, and education in biotechnology. Since its founding, the center has distributed approximately $174 million.

Charles Hamner remembers when the state's national standing in biotech was very different. "When I became president of the Biotechnology Center in 1988, there were two North Carolina companies offering biotech products and about a half dozen just getting started," he recalls. Hamner and his colleagues recognized the potential for biotechnology to bring economic development to the state and provide quality jobs to its citizens. They also saw that the state's research universities offered a deep talent pool to nourish such an effort. Leveraging those assets for the state's benefit, however, required a series of phases.

"We used a simple economic model in which each stage lasts 25 to 30 years. In the first phase, research and innovation dominate," Hamner says. To encourage that, the center provides seed money to bring bench research to the marketplace. This comes in the form of small long-term loans to startup companies, and research grants to academic investigators. In the long run, every dollar spent on startups brought $20 in venture capital to the state. The research grants were equally fruitful. Universities matched each dollar invested, and the professors used that to generate federal funding. In short order, a dollar of the state's money became $12 worth of innovation. "It was important to leverage the state's money in every way possible," Hamner observes.

In 1992, the Biotechnology Center moved from leased space into its 47,000-square-foot permanent headquarters on property owned by the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies. The Research Triangle Park facility houses about 50 full-time staff, the Hamner conference center, and a full-service biotechnology library open to the public.

Although the Biotechnology Center is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, its mission is to spread the benefits of biotechnology statewide. To that end, the center established regional offices in Asheville, Charlotte, Greenville, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem. Each of these centers coordinates research and development with local academic institutions and bioscience businesses to encourage the development of biotechnology statewide.

Advisory committees have also been formed in four of the five regions, with the last one on the way, and each region has its own focus in particular areas of biotechnology. The west concentrates on herbal medicines, natural products, and forestry; the east on row crops, livestock, and medical applications of agriculture; the southeast on marine biotechnology and agriculture; greater Charlotte on bioinformatics, nanotechnology, and medical applications; and Piedmont Triad on regenerative medicine, medical devices, and other aspects of human health.

"It was a great opportunity to have so many strong supporters in the early days," Hamner recalls. Governors Hunt, Martin, and Easley have all been backers of the Biotechnology Center, as has the state legislature. In the 1980s, Hamner says, about two-thirds of the state legislature was behind the center's approach. Yes, some people had thought that bringing biotechnology to North Carolina was impossible - that it would cost too much - but the results speak for themselves.

During the 1990s, Big Pharma started adopting North Carolina in a big way. What would become GlaxoSmithKline, along with Wyeth and Bayer, all established facilities near the state capital. Overall, $15 million spent to recruit companies yielded $900 million invested in the state.

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Still, the scope of biotechnology in North Carolina continues to change and grow. Hamner says that about 80% of the biotechnology that came to the state during his tenure at the center was pharmaceutical, and the other 20% was mostly agricultural. Today, though, the Tarheel-biotech industry is much more diverse. From the marine biosciences to companies specializing in clinical trials, North Carolina provides a welcoming environment for biotechnology. Its congenial climate, supportive infrastructure, and highly skilled workforce make it among the most attractive locations for the industry to put down roots.

When Hamner retired in 2002, his second phase of exponential growth was very much in place in North Carolina. Indeed, as 2006 drew to a close, the state could boast more than 358 biotech companies within its borders. The Biotechnology Center, however, has far from completed its mission.

© NC BIOTECHNOLOGY CENTER

From 2002 to early 2007, Leslie M. Alexander pushed the center's mission toward maturity. In 2004, the center presented Governor Mike Easley with a five-year strategic plan for encouraging the growth of biotechnology in North Carolina. The plan - developed in conjunction with 120 leaders in science, business, government, and education - offered 54 strategies for accomplishing that goal and assigned primary responsibility to entities across the state through its regional centers.

Meanwhile, the center continues to develop new ways to support Tarheel biotechnology. In 2006, for instance, the center started a new grant program that will provide investigators at universities or nonprofit institutes with as much as $75,000. These grants will be aimed particularly at scientists working on projects with the potential for commercialization but that are too immature to gain funding from other sources. According to Ken Tindall, the center's senior vice president of science and business development, "The intention is to provide resources for proof-of-concept studies, thereby allowing for researchers to be more competitive in recruiting federal research funding to North Carolina."

Earlier this year, the center also approved $350,000 in loans to companies, including Addrenex Pharmaceuticals, which received a $150,000 small business research loan. This company is developing Clonical, an extended-release formulation that battles hypertension and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Through these projects and many others, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center looks forward to continuing success.