Florida Budget Crisis Affects TBED Initiatives; $450M Biotech Fund Running on Empty

Beginning in 2003 with its $510 million investment to lure the Scripps Research Institute (see the Oct. 31, 2003, issue of the Digest), the state of Florida has drawn national attention over the past few years for its aggressive pursuit of major life science research institutions. This year, however, it looks like that strategy will have to be put on a temporary hiatus.
 
After extended debate about broadening the sectors that benefit from the Innovation Incentive Fund (IIF) – the source of money used to bankroll the post-Scripps package of incentives available to these institutions – the Florida legislature has decided not to replenish the fund altogether. Though funding may resume in future years, the fund is currently depleted and state leaders are considering reprioritizing their economic development initiatives in light of changing economic conditions.
 
The IIF was established in 2006 to lure larger R&D projects and to take advantage of opportunities to improve the state's innovation economy. Since that time, the fund has mostly been used to attract branches of some of the world's most recognizable life science institutions including the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, SRI International, the Max Plank Society, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, and the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. The fund also provided $80 million for the Miami Institute of Human Genomics.
 
Part of the rationale for the investments targeted to a single sector was to develop a life science cluster in the state. While the original facilities of many of the induced research institutions reside in close proximity to each other in Southern California, Florida’s cluster is taking on a more dispersed shape. Click here to view a map of Florida's six life science investments through the IIF and the Scripps deal.
 
That support, however, was costly. From Scripps through the final deal of the IIF, the state has invested nearly $1 billion. The fund was initially seeded with $200 million in 2006 and renewed with $250 million in 2007. Though Enterprise Florida proposed another $250 million investment this year, the state's overall revenue shortfalls prevented even a $25 million proposal from passing.
 
Scripps and the six IFF organizations have promised to create a total of 1,693 direct jobs. The state is counting on much more than that being created by ancillary and other indirect jobs, as well as additional life science businesses wanting to locate in the area given the concentration of bioscience research centers.
 
While the state's Quick Action Closing Fund will receive another $45 million for the year – and bioscience deals are eligible for those funds along with any other potential relocation – it appears Florida will have to slow the pace of its long-term biotech strategy.