O’Malley to promote state’s leadership in biosciences at San Diego convention

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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Gov. Martin O’Malley arrives in San Diego today to help market the state at the annual BIO International Convention, the third time in the last three weeks he has traveled out of state to boost Maryland’s development of business in the life sciences.

O’Malley told The Examiner his goal in San Diego was to “re-establish Maryland’s leadership role and ascendancy as a powerhouse of the bioscience economy in the world today.”

This afternoon he’ll meet with several business prospects, and Thursday morning he is scheduled to sit down with about 20 CEOs of Maryland biomedical companies. Almost 50 Maryland companies, one of the largest contingents from the U.S., have booths or exhibits in the Maryland pavilion.

“We all work together to market the state,” said Dave Tillman, spokesman for the Department of Business and Economic Development. “It’s a great way to leverage the state’s assets,” and “there’s no better marketer of the state than the governor.”

Not to be outdone in boosting the life sciences, Comptroller Peter Franchot will also be flying to the BIO convention. He attended the one in Boston last year, but O’Malley did not. “We’re happy the governor’s going to be here this year,” Franchot spokesman Joe Shapiro said.

Thursday, O’Malley will be at the Milken Institute’s release of its latest report updating measurements of the technology and science assets for all 50 states and ranking them on their ability to foster and sustain a technology sector. The report will contain “good news for Maryland,” Tillman said. The state ranked high in the 2004 report.

An economic study prepared for Franchot’s life sciences summit in December said the state’s biosciences sector may already be the nation’s largest. “Over the next decade, Maryland’s biotech sector is poised to become even more globally pre-eminent,” said the study, by Anirban Basu’s Sage Policy Group.

Last week, the governor was in North Carolina, where he explored why North Carolina was more successful in developing biosciences companies than Maryland “with fewer assets in a shorter period of time,” O’Malley said.

“They were so lean and so hungry that they were able to craft a strategy” that propelled the bioscience sector, O’Malley said.

Maryland has “so many assets that have been here for so long,” such as the National Institutes of Health and other federal research facilities, O’Malley said. Part of the biosciences initiative he announced Monday will be an attempt to get the institutions, universities and the private companies collaborating more effectively.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com

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107 days ago: Montgomery may get boost from $1B biotech initiative

» 114 days ago: O’Malley to promote state’s leadership in biosciences at San Diego convention «

115 days ago: O’Malley announces initiative to boost bioscience industry

126 days ago: Vanda, LabCorp to pursue genetic test for treatment of schizophrenia patients

150 days ago: Hopkins partners with Fort Detrick for biotech program